Zalewski 2WD Top Qualifier at MIBO International

Bartek Zalewski is the 2WD Top Qualifier at the MIBO International in the Czech Republic, the young up & coming Polish talent taking the TQ from 4WD Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho.  Coming down to the fifth & final round of qualifying, with two TQ runs on Saturday giving Zalewski the overnight lead, Coelho would top Q5 from Zalewski but that P2 would improve the 16-year-olds points tally and secure him the overall TQ by 2-points.  Coelho’s second TQ run in 2WD, he will start second with Q3 winner Zsolt Bajusz lining up third and Jessica Palsson fourth.  Reacting to his TQ Zalewski said, ‘I’m happy. My goal for the finals is to be consistent and be as fast as I can and see what that brings’.

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Video – 4WD Buggy Qualifying Rd4

Coelho secures 4WD TQ, Zalewski holds 2WD TQ with one to go

With four of the five rounds of Offroad qualifying complete at MIBO International, Bruno Coelho has secured the 4WD while young Polish talent Bartosz Zalewski holds the provisional TQ in 2WD.  Capping off Day 2’s action at the Michal Bok organised race with his third 4WD run of the day, Coelho put the TQ beyond his rivals’ reach.  The only other driver to top the times today when he took Q2, Zalewski also has two P2 runs to his credit to split his two senior Xray team-mates.  With a pair of second fastest times leaving Martin Bayer third and mathematically in with a chance of bumping himself one spot up the grid in tomorrow morning’s fifth & final qualifying.  Overnight Max Gotzl is holding fourth in 4WD ahead of Sweden’s Jessica Palsson and veteran racer Hupo Honigl.

In 2WD, Zalewski was the only driver to hit the top of the timing screens twice over the day.  Having taken Q1 Coelho’s 2WD endeavours went downhill from there including a DNF in Q4.  The other TQ performance came from Hungarian driver Zsolt Bajusz as the youngster collected 100 points for Q3.  16-year-old Zalewski can only be denied becoming Top Qualifier in Hrotovice by Bajusz or Coelho but with the fastest 5-minute time his rival are really going to need to put together a rather special run in the morning.  The 2WD Euro Buggy Masters Champion Palsson holds P3 overnight equal on points with Gotzl while Coelho lies 5th looking to shed a 6th from Q3.

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Coelho doubles Q1, Zalewski doubles Q2

There were double TQ runs in each of the opening two rounds of Offroad Qualifying at the MIBO International, Q1 being ruled by Bruno Coelho, and Bartosz Zalewski making his mark in Q2.  Opening the action with 2WD, top seed Coelho took a very convincing TQ run from Xray team-mates Martin Bayer and Max Gotzl before topping the 4WD times from Zalewski for the perfect start to qualifying.  Retiring from Q1 in 2WD, Zalewski made amends second time round capitalising on many mistakes from Coelho to secure the TQ.  With his confidence running high, the Polish driver then added a 4WD TQ run again taking advantage of mistakes by Coelho who finished well down the order, as Bayer claimed P2 ahead of Gotzl.

Summing up the opening round Coelho said both cars were very good and everything went as expected.  For Round 2 however he decided to ‘try something totally different in the geometry’ and which wasn’t good and with the car difficult to drive this lead to many mistakes.  Leaving his 4WD unchanged for Q2 he said his result was simple down to his driving which he described with a smile as ‘mucking around’.  Planning to go back to the previous set-up on his 2WD and just make some small adjustments to that, he said with his 4WD he just needs to drive it better.

Describing both cars as ‘perfect’, Zalewski was quick to put his 2WD DNF behind him and said despite having to start Q2 9th he had a clean track and put together a nice run that was enough to top the round.  The No.2 seed in 4WD, he said Q1 was a good run ‘but Bruno was faster’.  With his XB4 ‘stable & fast’, he said it was nice to go one better in Q2 and the only thing he needs to work on for the rest of today’s qualifying is to drive them well.

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Coelho leads way in Offroad at MIBO International

Bruno Coelho leads the way at the MIBO International Race, the Xray driver the top seed for both 2WD & 4WD Buggy in Hrotovice.   The World Champion’s first race on indoor carpet in more than 3-years, he has quickly found his rhythm on the 30 metre wide and 19 metre deep track topping 2WD from Martin Bayer and 4WD from young Polish talent Bartosz Zalewski.  Commenting on his morning’s work he said, ‘We have been making a lot of changes, testing & testing to make it faster and faster. Everything works good both in 2WD and 4WD’.  Asked if they had made any significant key changes he explained all the changes have been big to see if this is the right direction to go and if it is then the rest of the rest test it adding ‘this is a god race for this (approach)’.

Second fastest in 4WD and P4 in 2WD, Zalewski said his XB4 is ‘really smooth to drive and fast’.  The 16-year-old from Warsaw said he is pleased with the car set-up and has been more focused on his driving.  Describing his 2WD, in which his was 4th fastest, as a little unstable he said this feeling is probably more about how he is driving it then a set-up issue and so he will ‘work more on the driving’ for the opening qualifier.

Third fastest in 2WD, Max Gotzl summed up practice with ‘so far it’s good’.  The Czech driver continued, ‘both cars are good and most of my work has been on my hands (driving)’.  For 2WD he said the focus has been on a consistent 5-minutes while 4WD started off not so well a change to the car has since put in ‘back in the game’ with him seeding 4th behind his Xray/Elceram team-mate Martin Bayer.  Using the new Nitride speedo from Czech company Elceram, he said they have been doing some work on this also and he believes they have a good base set-up now for qualifying.  Overall Gotzl believes tyre management is going to be the biggest factor  to the outcome of qualifying.

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