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Having taken second in A1, Joona Haatanen has gone one better in A2 to take the win ahead of Hupo Honigl and Bruno Coelho.  Leading the first half of the race, Top Qualifier Coelho would make a small mistake that would allow Michal Orlowski to go to the front but then it was the Champion’s turn to have a moment allowing Coelho to go back to the front before another error handed Haatanen a lead he wasn’t going to give up, the Finn having found a lot more pace from his Team Associated for A2.  In the end Haatanen won by a very comfortable 6-seconds from Honigl, with Coelho having to settle for third a further 4-seconds back.  Despite setting the fastest lap of the race, Orlowski’s chances of capping off his championship winning campaign with a podium finish are looking unlikely as he crossed the line 5th having ended up 7th in A1.

‘Finally’, was Haatanen’s reaction to the win.  Having had a tough campaign since winning the season opener, he continued, ‘I made a change to the car.  Less toe in the rear. moved the battery forward and ran the car lower and this gave much more corner speed. I felt I was matching the pace of Bruno ad Michal’.  Reporting his battery was not screwed in, the teenager who is without his father as his mechanic this weekend, said, ‘I can only blame the mechanic for that, which is myself’.  Looking to A3, with him now firmly in the hunt for the win he said, ‘I will maybe go with new tyres’.

Commenting on his P2 from 5th on the grid, Honigl said, ‘I felt pretty racy this time and the rear of my car was pretty wide’.  The Austrian added, ‘to be honest everyone crashed and I crashed less’.

‘I had more mistakes this final than over all the day’, was how Coelho summed up his eventful race.  He continued, ‘This was my monkey moment and I hope to not continue like this.  I need a run with no mistakes’.  Asked about track conditions for the evening race, he said, ‘I think the track is not really dry. My car was good before on used tyres but this time it was super loose so I will go on new tyres for the last one’.

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Bruno Coelho ended up with an easy win in the opening A-Main of 2WD at the Euro Offroad Series in Austria.  Taking a dominant TQ at the ERT Steyregg track, Coelho wasn’t to have it as easy at the start of A1 coming under string pressure from No.2 qualifier Michal Orlowski until a mistake from the Pole saw him cross the track and cause Coelho to crash.  This allowed third place qualifier Joona Haatanen into the lead but the recovering Coelho didn’t take long to regain his position at the front from where he soon opened up a large advantage over the field.  Behind, Haatanen then had to see off a challenge from Lucas Grainer which he duly did to finish over 3-seconds back on Coelho and over a second up on Grainer, who was clearly delighted to take an A-Main Top 3 finish on his EOS debut.

Commenting on his race, Coelho said, ‘Orlowski was making a lot of pressure at the start but then had a mistake ad landed on the other part of the track and it made me lose two places.  Once Scotty called Orlowski to let me by I forced a lot to catch Joona and once I was passed him I was able to open up a gap’.  Asked if he was surprised by Orlowski’s early pace, the former 4WD Champion and current 4WD points leader said, ‘I started safe because it is easy to make a mistake. It is easier to push when you are behind and it is something I would do if I was behind someone in the hope you can force them into a mistake’. After letting Coelho through, Orlowski would have another mistake on his own which dropped him out of contention and decided to pull off.

Enjoying an ice cream after A1, it very hot & humid at the track, Haatanen said, ‘At the start I saw I didn’t have the pace I needed to race at the front’.  The Team Associated driver continued, ‘then something happened at the front and I got the lead but Bruno got it back on the next lap.  At least I got second, that’s good for me’.

Enjoying an impressive EOS debut, 16-year-old Grainer was very happy with his race.  Qualifying a strong 4th, the Xray driver from Vienna said, ‘I was trying to catch Joona and in the end he was too fast but the race was just a great experience for me’.

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Bruno Coelho is the 2WD Top Qualifier at the season finale of the Euro Offroad Series in Steyregg, Austria.  The Xray driver claimed his first 2WD TQ of the season with a third consecutive TQ run in the penultimate round of qualifying to become only the third different pole sitter of this year’s 6 round calendar.  Winner of the second round of the championship, the current 4WD points leader will look to become only the third different 2WD winner of the season later today.  With incoming bad weather, the organisers have decided to bring forward the running of the finals tonight in the hope the first winner at astro surface ERT Steyregg track can be decided in dry conditions.  With Coelho going on to complete a clean sweep of all qualifying rounds, a second place in the concluding qualifier means already confirmed Season #8 champion Michal Orlowski will start P2 with Joona Haatanen lining up third ahead of Lucas Grainer and Hupo Honigl.

Reacting to the Q3 performance with which he locked down the overall TQ, Coelho said, ‘it was another good round but this time I made a stronger start than the two before and now the TQ is already done’.   Asked about his distinct advantage over his rivals, the former Buggy World Champion replied, ‘the track is super difficult and I like it that way but our car is working very good now also’.  He added, ‘In the final I think anything can still happen.  We have already seen how easy it is to have a mistake that ends up costing a couple of seconds so it is all open for the finals’.

Commenting on his second place on the grid, Orlowski said, ‘the day didn’t start off well so I’m happy to be second’.  Finishing the closest he has been all day to Coelho in Q4, albeit helped by the Portuguese driver having a 3-second roll, the Schumacher driver continued, ‘that was a 3rd run on the tyres so I have perfect tyres for the final.  I think we will make some changes for the next run but I don’t actually have any ideas what.  I also know I am not driving  perfect and know the areas I am losing out because of my driving’.  Winner on the last two occasions and chasing a hat trick of consecutive wins, the Pole concluded, ‘I am confident I can follow Bruno around. We’ll see what happens from there’.

Reacting after the final qualifier to his P3 grid position, Haatanen said, ‘the car was amazing again but I was on my 4th run with the tyres and they started sliding around at the end.  That cost me 2nd in the ranking to Michal’.  Looking to the finals, the Team Associated driver said, ‘It seems Michal has a similar pace to Bruno so maybe I can be there if anything happens between them. I will have new tyres so my own pace should be better but I will try to drive smooth and without mistakes like in did in the first two qualifiers’.

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The second round of qualifying at the EOS Season Finale was pretty much a repeat of Q1 with Bruno Coelho again the clear benchmark and topping the times from Joona Haatanen. Coelho improved on his opening time by over 2-seconds to finish with an even greater advantage over his Finnish rival who found a 1-second improvement in his pace in the hot and humid conditions.  With the astro surface appearing to favour Xray XB2, Austrian Lucas Grainer completing the Top 3 as the driver closest to Coelho in the top heat.  While improving on his first effort and breaking into the 12-laps over the 5-minutes, Michal Orlowski claimed a 4th but again the run contained too many mistakes and crashes with him a massive 8-seconds down on Coelho’s TQ pace.  Behind the three time champion, Hupo Honigl backed up his P3 in Q1 with the fifth fastest time with Pekko Iivonen completing the Top 6.  In 2WD 13.5, Tim Kunz took the opening two qualifiers while Philipp Märzinger set the pace 2WD Stadium truck.

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Bruno Coelho has claimed the opening 2WD qualifier at the Euro Offroad Series Season finale at ERT Steyregg in Austria.  A new venue on the Season #8 calendar, the difficult astro turf track saw the Xray driver top the first of the four qualifiers by over 3-seconds from Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen who, after struggling in practice, was running in the second fastest heat.  Obviously finding some new motivation from racing at home, Hupo Honigl would complete the Top 3 ahead of Xray team-mate Daniel Kobbevik who just missed out on a 12-lap run.  For already crowned 2WD Champion Michal Orlowski it wasn’t a strong start to the event as his run was filled with errors resulting in a P7 for Q1.

Commenting on his TQ run, Coelho said, ‘the first few laps I was trying to drive safe’.  After a wet start to the day which had drivers running the silver compound of Schumacher’s handout tyre, he continued, ‘In the warm-up I was flipping everywhere as it was the first time on yellow (compound) tyres.  By the third lap I was in first and Hupo was second so I just watched his pace’.  Coming into the event fresh from winning another European Touring Car Championship title,  the Portuguese described the track as ‘the most difficult track I have been to’, explaining, ‘the hills create a lot of optical illusions and you think the car is a certain way on the track but its not’.  On his XB2 he said, ‘the car is working very good and we now have a wet car and and dry car, so we are good for any conditions. Well we think so’.  Unfortunately Saturday and Sunday’s weather is showing plenty of wet conditions.

‘Much better than practice’, was Haatanen reaction when asked how he felt Q1 had gone.  Kicking off the current EOS season with his first ever win, the Finn said, ‘the car was way too soft in practice so I looked up my Arena 33 set-up from last year and put it on for qualifying.  The car was much better and easier to drive. It doesn’t want to flip over anymore’.  Describing the 5-minute qualifier as ‘a bit safe to make sure of a good first run’ he said ‘I’m happy with the result as practice didn’t go so good and I think I will drive similar for the next one’.

Honigl said, ‘It was a good run. At least I had no mistakes but I am not used to driving up at the front again’.  The former series race winner continued, ‘I was shaking like a beginner.  The car could do better but we had the driver issue.  Hopefully I can improve that for the next one’.

Battling for an overall Top 3 in the final championship standings, Kobbevik said his opening effort had ‘just too many mistakes’.  Having made big changes to his Xray between the final seeding run and Q1 he said the car felt more edgy and it took him time to get used to it.  Feeling the new set-up is better adding ‘I like it’, the young Norwegian will leave car the same and instead try to build confidence in his driving.

‘I don’t know’ was Orlowski reply when question about Q1.  The Pole continued, ‘I had too many mistakes and crashes but the car felt good and had the pace’.  Admitting conditions were now more edgy as the grip comes up, he plans to make a small front end change to his Cougar Laydown adding, ‘hopefully it will be better as the overall feeling with the car is very good’.

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Name/Club – ERT Steyregg
Country – Austria
Location – Steyregg (10km South East of Linz)
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Surface – Astro
Previous key events hosted – 0

Season #8 of the EOS comes to a conclusion this weekend with a first visit to the ERT Steyregg in Austria.  Built in 1997, the track is the home of the ERT Steyregg club which was founded 10-years earlier at different location nearby until the land was required for housing.  Coming to an arrangement to rent a plot of land from a local Earl, the club originally built a dirt track which after a few years was then converted to a concrete surface.  Due to the freezing conditions of the Austrian winters, which destroyed the top surface, this meant a lot of work each year as the surface had to be redone annually.  Three years ago the decision was then made to convert the track to full astro turf, and with the club which once had a membership of 100 but is now just 20, this means a huge reduction in the amount of track work needed and if the weather is fine means they can even resume racing as early as February.  Unfortunately an on-road track built to the rear of the drivers stand is no longer in use as the result of the high dust levels generated by a nearby gravel plant.

Having already successfully secured his 3rd consecutive 2WD title at the previous round in Arena 33, Michal Orlowski described the ERT Steyregg track as ‘tough’.  Arriving to a wet track this morning after overnight rain, with more unfortunately on the forecast for Saturday & Sunday, he added ‘the layout is quite difficult’ with its mixture of uphill and downhill chicanes.  With the warm weather making for ever changing tracks conditions as it dries out, this has meant the main focus has been on chasing the conditions but he is happy with how it’s been going so far.

Winner of the season opener, Joona Haatanen described the track as ‘different’ but added, ‘I like it’.  The young Finn said ‘where you stand on the drivers stand completely transforms how the track is to drive’. Having ran free practice on the left side, he moved to the right side of the drivers stand for timed practice and ‘it was like a completely different track’.  Like Orlowski, he said the track has felt different each run but added ‘if it stays like it is now is it is going to make for good racing’.

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