Fourth DHI Cup win for Neumann
Joern Neumann remains the unbeaten DHI Cup Champion in 4WD Buggy when for the second year running, the German again saw off the challenge of Martin Bayer in the third A-Main. With a win a piece, Bayer winning A1, the pair went into A3 exactly as they did 12-months ago with a winner takes all situation. Starting from the TQ position Neumann would only briefly relinquish the lead when Bayer attempted a move on lap 3 and had to wait on Neumann to retake position as David Ronnefalk drove past the recovering Durango to take a short lived lead. While Bayer had the pace to challenge his carpet track nemesis a series of mistakes from the Czech driver would drop him to fourth leaving him to again finish second overall. Finishing A3 in second position Ronnefalk would complete the podium in Denmark on his HB debut.
Currently racing without a chassis sponsors, but still using the Durango DEX410 that has in some form or another helped him to all his DHI Cup victories, Neumann said it was nice to start the 2015 season with a fourth consecutive win of the event and keep his 100% winning record intact for another year. Having found his Orion powered buggy edgy to drive in the opening two Mains, he said removing another row of pins from the controlled Schumacher tyres for A3 left him with no such problems and other than the early contact with Bayer the race went to plan.
Bayer said ‘I’m not disappointed with second’. Setting the fastest lap of both A2 & A3, the Czech ace said ‘I had the speed and I’m happy with the performance of the car but my own mistakes cost me the chance to fight with Joern’.
Disappointed with his driving in A1 & 2, Ronnefalk said A3 was an improvement, with him particularly pleased at not crashing on the final lap as he had done in the previous two encounters costing him a chance of being in the hunt for the overall win going into the closing race. The Swede said while he was lucky to take the lead when Bayer made contact with Neumann he was also unlucky as his D413 got caught up on Neumann’s wheel without which he said he could have easily found himself with a 3-second lead instead just getting ahead. Towards the end of the race he said he also played more cautious as he didnt want to risk his second as he wasn’t sure of A3 third place finisher Niclas Mansson’s result from the other finals. Overall Mansson’s Associated would end up fourth. Pleased with his new car, Ronnefalk said the speed is there and he just needs more time to familiarise himself with it which should put him on a par with Bayer and Neumann when he will go up against them again at Round 2 of the EOS later this month.
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