Wollanka is stoked about finishing second

The 2014 European Championship fulfilled my dream to be on the podium between the European best drivers. How did I get there?

I started the practice with two wins in the first two practice runs. In the next runs the track had higher grip which was not a perfect condition for me. In qualifiers I started very well in a 10th place. In the 2nd qualifying round I run out fuel because the tank was not perfectly closed. On that day I closely inspected my car on the HUDY Set-up Station for all the smallest set-up details and changed all the oils. I worked in the pits till midnight. I had many ideas for the next day and a clear plan what to do next with the set-up as the conditions will change. In the 4th round I made a clean run and finished on position 13. The new set-up of the car felt really good. I changed only the shock position on the rear so the car got more grip and more traction. In last qualifying run I was driving without mistakes and my car had great speed so I was able to finish on 9th position. At the end of the qualifiers I finished in an overall 15th position which secured me a direct semifinal starting position.

 

The semifinal was really good for me and I made no mistake and finished on 4th position. It was a great feeling for me as I was in the A-Main final at European Championship with all these pro racers. In the A-main final I started from 9th position, Bayer from 5th and Savoya from 3rd position so we had 3 XRAY cars in the final. Part of the success for me to get into the A-main final was for sure the very reliable XRAY car which gave me enough speed to be at the top with the best drivers. So I was confident for the A-main final with both car & engine.

 

The A-main final started really bad for me, I hit another guy from behind and we got out of the track so I was on the last position with a little gap to the field. The car felt very good and I had good speed and that was what I needed to get to the top. I was racing on the 5th position and I knew that in front of me were only the absolutely best drivers in the Europe. I realized that it will be very difficult for me to pass them even I had the speed and great car but overtaking on this track was extremely difficult so I was concentrating to make no mistake. My strategy paid off. When Ronnefalk made a mistake I was on 3rd place in front of him. Ronnefalk was really fast but I didn’t allow him to overtake me. He made some mistakes when he tried to overtake me but after while I decided rather to go safe and let him go which dropped me back to 4th place. My teammate Reno was in front of me so I was trying to close the gap. Suddenly I was on the back of Reno. I overtook him when he made a little mistake. Bloomfield on 2nd position in from of me made a mistake which I together with Reno were able to utilize. I used the left side and Reno the right side to overtake Bloomfield and we got to 2nd and 3rd position. I pushed all what I could but first of all without mistakes to catch on Ronnefalk but there was no time left to the end of the A-main final and I finished 2nd and I become European vice-Champion. I have been extremely happy for my best ever achievement which was only possible with the great combo of car, engine and the team. As such I would like to thanks to all my sponsors for the great products and our team for the perfect team work during the entire week. Now it is time to practice for the next races.

Final Result:

1. David Ronnefalk 

2. Martin Wollanka – XRAY XB8

3. Darren Bloomfield

4. Robert Batlle 

5. Carsten Keller 

6. Lee Martin 

7. Teemu Leino 

8. Elliott Boots 

9. Christoffer Svensson 

10. Joseph Quagraine 

11. Martin Bayer – XRAY XB8

12. Renaud Savoya – XRAY XB8