This weekend our off-road team travelled to the second round of the EOS in Berlin. On the way we read driver list for this race and we anticipated a very highly-competitive race almost like World Championship. I was very motivated for this race!
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We started on Friday with 4 rounds of practice. Many drivers had the new Pro-Line tires before the race, but for us we only got the tires at the track so we were at a disadvantage already. We started setting up our cars for the new Pro-Line tires. They were totally different than the tires at the first round, so we quickly determined that we needed to change our set-ups to work with these tires.
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Practice started well and I finished 2nd in 4WD and 9th in 2WD. I was very happy with the performance of my car. Afterwards we started the real racing with qualification and finals. The Berlin track had high grip with super tight corners, so we already knew that the qualifiers would be the key to success.
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2WD qualification start pretty well for us, and I made TQ in round three and also a 5th place. This put me 3rd on the grid. In 4WD I was struggling to get a clean run. I had 3x second place but in the last run I was running for TQ when a lapped drivers sent me off the track so could not secure 2nd on the grid and got 3rd on the grid instead.
In 2WD I had a little problem warming up the tires so I was struggling in the first lap. With some mistakes and battling on the track I could only manage an 8th place finish. For sure my car could easily finish in the top 5. I needed a little more luck in 2WD class.
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For the 4WD class I knew it would be very difficult to overtake Lee Martin and start to push on Jorn Nuemann. In the first main I overtook Lee by the half-way point. I told myself that I had nothing to lose, so either I would stay in 2nd or start to push to take the lead; there was a 6-second gap between me and the leader. I started pushing hard and narrowed the gap to 0.5 second, but I ran out of time and so I finish 2nd. In the second main I overtook Lee in the second corner and tried to stay with Jorn. We battled for the entire main but he drove very cleanly and I had no good opportunities to overtake him.
In last lap I overjumped him on a jump, so we crashed together but he went upside down! I told myself that I couldnâ™t take a win like that and so I waited for him; I hope we showed the other drivers how things should be done with etiquette. In the third main there was still a battle for 2nd place overall between me and Naoto. After the start, I took the lead in the second lap and tried to put a gap on him. After him making several mistakes I brought home the win in that final and so secured an overall 2nd place finish at the event.
I was very happy with my car being so competitive during the week. I would like to thank to Juraj Hudy and Reno Savoya for their great help during week.
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4WD Buggy Overall Result
1. Joern Neumann (DE) 2. Martin Bayer (CZ) â“ XRAY XB4
3. Naoto Matsukura (JP)
4. Hupo Honigl (AT)
5. Lee Martin (GB)
6. Ronald Volker (DE)
7. Christopher Krapp (DE) 8. Renaud Savoya (FR) â“XRAY XB4
9. Robert Batlle (ES)
10.Peter Pinisch (AT)
2WD Buggy Overall Result
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP)
2. Joern Neumann (DE)
3. Hupo Honigl (AT)
4. Lee Martin (GB)
5. Christopher Krapp (DE)
6. Tom Cockerill (GB)
7. Yannic Prumper (DE) 8. Martin Bayer (CZ) â“XRAY XB4 2WD
9. David Ronnefalk (SE)
10.Kev Lee (GB)
