‘We made the impossible possible’, Orlowski leads Schumacher 1-2 at MIBO International
Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has added his name to MIBO International’s Roll of Honour for the offroad, the previous Touring Car Champion of the Czech event denying compatriot Bartek Zalewski the double when he took the 4WD Buggy title which went down to A3. Making the switch from the onroad track across to the parallel offroad track for the fourth edition of the annual race, Orlowski would qualify second to Zalewski in both 2WD and 4WD but coming up short on winning in 2WD, a team effort would see Orlowski lead a 1-2 result in 4WD from team-mate Daniel Kobbevik. Armed from fresh tyres for A1, Orlowski kicked off 4WD with a win ahead of Kobbevik as mistakes dropped Zalewski to P5. A2 would see Zalewski benefit from fresh rubber to win with ease over Orlowski despite the pair sharing identical fastest lap times for the race. In the decider while Zalewski looked to be dealing with the pressure of Orlowski almost on his rear wing, a small mistake at the tabletop with a minute to go gave us a lead change. While Orlowski led for a lap, Zalewski would then drive around the outside of his rival after they had came off the straight but they touched on the jump and both went tumbling handing Kobbevik the lead. With Zalewski trying for another pass after they resumed, he would catch the jump and roll out of contention finishing P3, 2-seconds back on Orlowski who took the overall win on tie break from Kobbevik.
‘We made the impossible possible with Daniel’, was how Orlowski described his team’s 1-2 at MIBO International. The Pole continued, ‘We have been working super hard with Ben, Eugene, and Elias on the car and by the end of qualifying and for the finals we got it the best we could.’ He added, ‘We needed to put Bartek under pressure and pressure him into mistakes. We worked together with Daniel on tyre strategy and on the track as well trying too help each other. At the end we were quite lucky with how it all happened on the track but we did everything thing perfectly and with some luck we were able to 1 and 2 with our cars so we are very happy about that.’
Asked to sum 4WD Kobbevik replied with it, ‘It ended good’. He continued, ‘It has been an up and down day for me. I struggled to find the confidence and the right way around the track let’s say. I couldn’t improve in the final qualifier so Michal went ahead of me on the grid in both classes but I still think it was a good end to the weekend with a 2nd (4WD) and a 3rd (2WD) after fighting like crazy all weekend.’ The World Championship finalist added, ‘I am always trying to find more speed and I worked very well together with Michal, Elias and Ben to try and achieve the best possible set-up for this track. I feel like we improved a lot but I want to improve even more because it doesn’t feel perfect let say.’ Asked where the final improvement came from he explained, ‘We did a huge change on the 4-wheel for the front and the rear with the geometry and it seemed to be a lot better, making it faster and more drivable as well. It was difficult to get a good feel out of the car before that and I was struggling with the lap times which is not a good deal. The A3 win and podium was a good way to finish.’
Clearly disappointed to miss the double, the 19-year-old always having huge fan support at MIBO International, Zalewski said, ‘The car felt good for most of them. The first one though I had used tyres compared to the Schumacher guys and oil was on the track so I was driving and just get a spin into the pipes and lost it. I was pushing so hard, but I make a few more mistakes and I end up P5. In the second main I pulled away. The car felt very strong and I was confident to many the bigger & bigger gap.’ On A3 the Top Qualifier said, ‘The third one it was close racing I would say. He passed me, then I passed him and we had contact, I mean I was out front, he touched me before the jump and in the the jump I couldn’t control where I was flying and made a mistake and that was it.’
View the action from an exciting third A-Main of 4WD Buggy which would decide the 2026 MIBO International title.
View full 4WD results here.
