This arcticle was published on 7 September 2020 on eurorcseries.com
Following the enforced break due to the Coronavirus situation around Europe, the second round of the 2020 Euro Offroad Series took place last week at the new outdoor offroad track at Arena 33 in Andernach, Germany. Unfortunately, some travel restrictions meant that both EOS Announcer Scotty Ernst, and EOS’s normal media partner RacewayOne, couldn’t be at the race. However, there was still a great turn out and the organisers particularly want to thank all the racers for sticking to the new rules that were in place to ensure the race could take place.
In 2WD, Xray’s Bruno Coelho took the first two rounds of qualifying, with fellow Xray pilot Max Gotzl taking the third round and Schumacher’s Jorn Neumann taking Q4. There were some standout performances from some of the younger racers, with Marcel Schneider scoring a second place in Q1 and lining up fourth overall and Aaron Munster securing his first EOS A Main with ninth in qualifying.
The A Finals were a battle between Coelho and Neumann, as the top two qualifiers lapped up to half a second per lap quicker than the rest of the closely matched field. In A1, Bruno make full use of his pole position to lead every lap of the race, with Jorn keeping him honest but ultimately having to settle for second place. In A2, Coelho immediately had to drive at 100% to keep the German behind him. This led to an early mistake from the two-time 4WD World Champion, leaving Neumann out front and Gotzl up to second. There was no change up front, as Neumann build a lead of around three seconds and took a controlled win. Coelho fought back through the pack, but was only able to reach fifth place by the buzzer. The showdown in A3 never materialised, as a mistake from Coelho on lap 1 again dropped him down the order, leaving Neumann to once again control the race and build a comfortable lead. Gotzl again made the most of the error from his teammate to take over second place, which he would hold until the finish and thus secure the overall runner up spot.
2WD A FINAL OVERALL RESULT
1 Jorn Neumann (DE)
2 Max Gotzl (DE)
3 Bruno Coelho (PT)
4 Martin Bayer (CZ)
5 Michal Orlowski (PL)
6 Hupo Honigl (AT)
7 Marcel Schneider (DE)
8 Wesley Van Helmond (NL)
9 Micha Widmaier (DE)
10 Aaron Munster (DE)
4WD was again the ‘Bruno and Jorn Show’, as Neumann took Q1 before Coelho rebounded to top the remaining qualifiers. Michal Orlowski recovered from his (by his standards!) poor 2WD result to line up third overall, with Martin Bayer and Hupo Honigl completing the top five on the grid.
A1 saw a great battle between Coelho and Neumann, with Coelho leading the first half of the race before a small slide gave Neumann the small chance he needed to move through and take the lead. Although Coelho didn’t let him get away, the Portuguese driver couldn’t find a way through and ended up less than half a second behind at the line. In A2, it was finally time for the mistake to come from Neumann, an error on lap four pushed him back a few places. Out front, Coelho was then being chased by Orlowski and just before half distance, the Xray driver made a small error and allowed the Schumacher pilot into the lead. But the race wasn’t over, and a few laps later Orlowski returned the favour and Coelho was back to the lead and took the victory by just one tenth of a second. Behind, Neumann had recovered to third, but missed out on the extra lap and the chance to challenge for the win. This meant any of the top three drivers could take the overall win, but Coelho’s chances faded quickly as he dropped to the back of the pack on lap 1. Our front, the Schumacher duo circulated comfortably clear of the field and, although Orlowski kept Neumann honest, it was clear that the German driver was on control and ran out to take the overall victory and complete the ‘double’ at this event.
4WD A FINAL RESULTS
1 Jorn Neumann (DE)
2 Bruno Coelho (PT)
3 Michal Orlowski (PL)
4 Hupo Honigl (AT)
5 Martin Bayer (CZ)
6 Micha Widmaier (DE)
7 Wesley Van Helmond (NL)
8 Max Gotzl (DE)
9 Jesper Rasmussen (DK)
10 Aaron Munster (DE)
In the Stock classes, 2WD saw Schumacher designer Trish Neal start on pole, ahead of Niklas Mahrle and Mick Burbach. Neal wasn’t troubled in the finals and took the win in A1 and A2 to secure the overall victory. Simon Stegmeier came through to finish second overall, helped by a win in A3 as Trish sat out the final race. Burbach held on to finish third overall. In 4WD Stock, it was Stegmeier who secured pole ahead of Neal and Burbach. In the finals, Stegmeier continued to dominate the class, winning A1 and A2. Burbach came through to win A3, and therefore took second overall, with Neal completing the podium.
Finally, in the Truck classes, Neumann continued his strong weekend in the Modified division, with TQ and the overall win. Micha Widmaier finished in the runner up position, with Wesley Van Helmond rounding out the podium. In Stock Truck, Tristan Hackl was in control, securing pole position and the overall win, with Stefan Matas finishing second overall and Philipp Marzinger third overall.