Hagberg and Orlowski Crowned EFRA 1/12th Scale Champions

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By Tyler Hooks
LiveRC.com

Press Release from Schumacher Racing:
www.racing-cars.com

EFRA and Hudy Arena presented the fabulous 1/12th Scale (LMP12) European Championships, March 2019.
The Schumacher development and race team have consistently improved on the radical Eclipse 2 concept over a very productive season.  This meant that our team would arrive at this race as both underdogs but also quietly confident in a strong result.

Friday -  It was instantly obvious that the hard work has paid off.  In both classes Schumacher would take top seed with Michal fastest in the Stock class and 1/12th Scale newcomer Jorn Neumann topping his first event race day in the fastest modified class.  This alone was a fantastic achievement given that he would start ahead of current European and World champion Alexander Hagberg 2nd and Michal Orlowski 3rd.

Saturday - During qualifying, in the Stock class Michal Orlowski and his Eclipse 2 would continue his practice form to top the first 4 rounds of qualifying to take the overall pole position.  

Modified qualifying started in the best possible way for Team Schumacher.  Q1 and 2 would see Jorn and Michal taking 1-2 finishes, with the former going on to make it 3 from 3! In a nail biting finish to Q5, Alexander would take the pole position from Jorn by a mere 0.071 seconds! Schumacher’s 15 year old driver Louis Parker hammered home the teams strong form with a P9 A final grid spot.  His first ever European Championship A final and a fantastic drive all weekend long. Well done Louis, we are so proud! This would give Louis a guaranteed Junior European Champion title, as he would be the only Junior to line up in the top final!

Sunday - Stock Finals
Leg 1- Jorn made a rapid start to leg 1 first passing Niklas Johansson, then current stock champion, Ollie Payne. From his P4 on the grid this was a stunning start and may of caught the eye of TQ man Michal Orlowski who made a mistake during Jorn’s overtake for P2.   Jorn cruised home for an efforless half lap lead of Ollie in second.
Leg 2-  No such mistake from Michal this time.  He never looked in danger and took the leg win by 5 seconds from Niklas and Jorn who had a race long battle, finishing only 0.5 seconds apart. 
Leg 3- Michal would stamp his authority on this leg even more.  From start to finish he put in a relentless pace to streak away from the field finishing over 8.5 seconds  ahead of Ollie in second.
This would give Michal and Schumacher the European Championship in the Stock class, with Jorn making it a 1-2 finish on the podium! 

In the Stock B final, Ben Elliott and Mark Jewitt would show strong performances, giving them some reward for their great team efforts all week long.  Well done Ben for taking the B final win.

Modified Finals
Leg 1 - Alexander capitalized on his pole position grid start to take a lights to flag victory with a suburb drive.  Sadly a mistake on lap 5 would take Jorn out of contention for the leg win, but Michal could take 2nd place in this leg.
Leg 2 - The top 2 finished in the same order as leg one.  Alexander being the deserved European champion for the 6th time straight! Well done.  For our guys, Michal would keep him honest all race long after a crash from behind on lap one costing him 3 seconds, would finish up only 4 behind the newly crowned champion.  For Jorn, more mistakes would mean his fastest lap of the final could only reward him 3rd place after a strong drive back through the field.
Leg 3 - With the title already decided, Alexander would sit out of the final race.  This would give Jorn the chance to prove the pace he could achieve when in clear air.  Sadly another mistake meant he had to retire.  Michal Orlowski came back from an early error to take the leg win and with it the Vice European champion trophy.  Louis Parker finished off his near perfect weekend with another P5 finish and with it 7th place overall!  

Congratulations to Alexander Hagberg for retaining the European Championship title.  
Well done to Michal Orlowski for becoming new Stock European champion, and Vice Modified European Champion!

 

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