March 15, 2019

Orlowski takes opening qualifier at EOS

Michal Orlowski has taken the opening round of 2WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series, the Schumacher driver having the upper hand on top seed Bruno Coelho over the 5-minutes.  With both Orlowski and Coelho the only drivers to manage 22-second laps of the Hudy Arena track, the duo were clearly on a different level to their rivals despite both drivers having multiple mistakes in the first of the four rounds of qualifying.  Behind it was championship points leader Lee Martin who was best of the rest, the Yokomo driver almost 6-seconds off the TQ pace.  Third fastest in seeding, Martin Bayer got a 4th from Q1 followed by Daniel Kobbevik with 12-year-old Polish driver Bartosz Zalewski pulling off an impressive Q1 to complete the Top 6.

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March 15, 2019

Coelho tops 2WD seeding at EOS Slovakia

Bruno Coelho is the top seed for 2WD qualifying at the fourth round of the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia.  The Xray driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps on a tighter than usual Hudy Arena track layout in the 2nd of the two controlled practices run to top the seeding from Michal Orlowski and Martin Bayer, with championship leader Lee Martin sixth fastest.  It was a somewhat controversial start to the weekend when it was discovered a high number of laps were completed on the track yesterday. On EOS race weekends the track is not open until the first free practice on Friday morning kick starts the weekend for all drivers in order to create a level playing field.  On investigation of the laps and transponder numbers, it was discovered the car completing the greatest number of laps was that of Daniel Kobbevik.  Race Director Scotty Ernst raised the issue with Xray team manager Martin Bayer who explained that Kobbevik’s car was being used to finalise the layout of the jumps and was driven by a number drivers including Xray boss Juraj Hudy but none of the team’s championship contenders.  The other cars were driven by non EOS competitors.  With Bayer confirming Kobbevik still drove approximately 30-laps in total, albeit not on the final race layout and many in the opposite direction, the decision was taken that the Norwegian would be forced to sit out CP2 – the matter still having been under investigation during CP1.

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February 4, 2019

Coelho gets EOS campaign on track with 4WD win in Daun

Bruno Coelho has put his 4WD Euro Offroad Series campaign on track with victory at the third round in Daun, Germany.  Coming into the weekend with a four points deficit to reigning champion Michal Orlowski, the Xray driver was gifted an early overall win after a dramatic final lap in A2.  Starting from the TQ and having won A1, Coelho threw things wide open on the opening lap with an identical first lap error to that of 2WD Top Qualifier Orlowski in yesterday’s opening 2WD A-Main. At the table top, Coelho’s car jumped wide off the landing and ended up in the infield allowing four cars to go by.  Recovering 2 of those places and suffering an error while attempting to challenge Orlowski for second, the Portuguese was settling for third but then as leader Joona Haatanen started his final lap be crashed at the corner jump breaking his car which was then collected by Orlowski allowing Coelho who had been some distance back to slip through for his second win of the day, again ahead of team-mate Daniel Kobbevik, and take his first EOS win since the penultimate round of last season’s championship in Wels, Austria.  Those results would stand to young Kobbevik helping him secure his first podium double weekend while victory in A3 was enough for Orlowski to secure 2nd.

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February 3, 2019

Coelho Top Qualifier at EOS Daun

Bruno Coelho is the 4WD Top Qualifier at EOS Daun, the Xray driver securing his second consecutive TQ of the season ahead of reigning champion Michal Orlowski.  Having taken last night’s second qualifier, Coelho locked up his 11th EOS career 4WD TQ when he took the fourth & final qualifier in the fastest time of the weekend giving him the tie-breaker over his main rival Orlowski who topped Q1 & 3.  Looking like the only other driver who might potentially challenge the Top 2 in the finals, Joona Haatanen will start third. Behind the Finn, a make or break final qualifier from star of the weekend’s 2WD action will see Daniel Kobbevik line up fourth on the grid ahead of HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk and the Yokomo of yesterday’s 2WD winner Lee Martin.

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February 2, 2019

Orlowski takes opening 4WD qualifier ahead of Haatanen

Reigning Champion Michal Orlowski has taken the opening round of 4WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series in Germany, the Schumacher driver having a 2-second advantage over the Team Associated of Joona Haatanen with top seed Bruno Coelho completing the Top 3.  Orlowski and Coelho would both have mistakes during the qualifier with a clean run allowing Haatanen to split them at the end.  Behind, David Ronnefalk would make it four different manufacturers at the top of the times with Martin Bayer a distant fifth ahead of 2WD race winner Lee Martin.

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February 2, 2019

Martin secures first EOS win in more than 3-years

Lee Martin has claimed his first EOS 2WD win in more than 3-years, the Yokomo driver taking victory in Daun, Germany, where the outcome was decided in A3.  Last winning a race in 2015 at the Hudy Arena en-route to becoming the Season #5 Champion, Martin put himself in contention for the Round 3 win when from 3rd on the grid he took the A1 win.  Backing that up with a P3 in A2, the British driver was able to drive a calculated A3 finishing third behind Daniel Kobbevik to beat the young Norwegian to the overall win.  While Top Qualifier Michal Orlowski would finally pull off a win in A3, it was A2 winner Joona Haatanen who completed the podium at the record entry event but the TQ point and fourth place sees Orlowski leave Germany still tied for the championship lead – the second half of the season getting underway in 6-weeks time at the Hudy Arena.

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February 2, 2019

Martin takes exciting A1 encounter in Daun

Lee Martin has taken the opening A-Main at the third round of the Euro Offroad Series in Daun, Germany.  Starting fourth on the grid the Yokomo driver took advantage of mistakes from drivers ahead of him including Top Qualifier Michal Orlowski, who crashed on the opening lap.  The race would see three different leaders with Martin putting in a faultless race to secure the victory over long time race leader Daniel Kobbevik with Xray team-mate Bruno Coelho completing the Top 3.  While Orlowski tried to recover with a ‘miracle’ pass on the final dash to the line, that causing a pile up involving Coelho and Haatanen, he came out worst with Haatanen, who challenged Martin for the lead in the middle of the race, getting fourth as Orlowski dropped to 7th.

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February 2, 2019

Orlowski Top Qualifier at EOS Daun (2WD)

Michal Orlowski is the Top Qualifier at the first EOS encounter of 2019, the Schumacher driver wrapping up his second consecutive pole position of Season #8 with a third TQ run in the fourth & final round of 2WD in Daun, Germany.  After a long 14.5 hour day at the track, the shoot out for the overall Round 3 TQ came down to Orlowski and Daniel Kobbevik, the latter having TQ’d the first qualifier of the day.  Unfortunately for Kobbevik, the challenge for his first EOS TQ was short lived as he traction rolled his Xray just before the wall before opting to pull up as he couldn’t better his already impressive P2 starting position for tomorrow’s A-Main grid.  While team-mate Bruno Coelho would set the early pace, once again an error would prevent the EOS Poland winner from converting his speed into a TQ run. Posting the fastest lap of the heat, he would recover to take a P3 behind Joona Haatanen while up front Orlowski topped the times by 1.8-seconds.  While it was a bad closing round for Lee Martin, the Yokomo driver will line-up third ahead of Coelho and Haatanen.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

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