Rennberichte

Coehlo und Finlay siegreich beim EWS Round 1, UK

Die EWS Serie startete am letzten Wochenende in ihre Hallensaison in England. Mit am Start war das Xray Team mit dem amtierenden IFMAR Weltmeister Bruno Coehlo und dem neuen Xray X4`23 am Start. Von dem Rennen berichtete Zak Finlay in seinem Bericht (in Englisch):

This past weekend saw the opening round of the popular Essex Winter Series, held in the south of England. XRAY was the title sponsor for the event, and with this, the team were looking forward to pushing for some excellent results.
The UK factory team were joined for the event by XRAY’s Martin Hudy, Bruno Coelho and Francesco Martini for the race, so it was set to be a great day.

In the modified class, recently crowned world champion, Bruno Coelho, set the pace with his XRAY X4’23 car, taking TQ in each of the four qualification rounds. Bruno was pushed hard by teammate Kyle Branson, who also showed fantastic pace to line up 2nd on the grid. Martin Hudy, Harley Eldridge, Marcus Askell and Adam Southgate also made the A-Main which made it 6 XRAY X4’s in the main final. This shows the pace of the car and the potential for the new X4 2023 platform.

In the final, Bruno was able to maintain control of the race from the front, leading from start to finish, taking the win. Kyle was able to lock out an XRAY 1-2 with a comfortable drive finishing in 2nd place, again showing good pace. Martin Hudy was close to finishing on the podium but had to settle for a 4th place finish after a close race. There were mixed fortunes for the rest of the team in the single leg A-Main, but some very impressive performances from the team throughout the day.

Modified Results:

  1. Bruno Coelho – XRAY X4’23
  2. Kyle Branson – XRAY X4’23
  3. Alex Thurston
  4. Martin Hudy – XRAY X4’23
  5. Dan Robins
  6. Andy Murray
  7. Harley Eldridge – XRAY X4’23
  8. Marcus Askell – XRAY X4’23
  9. Adam Southgate – XRAY X4
  10. Chris Grainger
  11. Matthieu Dambrine

In the Stock 17.5 Class, Team XRAY’s Zak Finlay was able to take the TQ in each of the qualification rounds to line up on the pole position for the A-Main. With the XRAY X4 cars working well all day, Zak was joined in the A-Main by the XRAY’s of Ricky Copsey, Tony Broad, Mason Weston and Ethan Southall. Special mention to Ethan who made his first EWS A-Main at this event.

In the final, Zak was able to build a comfortable lead in the first laps, and then controlled the race comfortably from that point, taking the win to round out a solid day.
Ricky Copsey and Tony Broad showed some excellent pace in battling for the podium positions. Ricky was able to finish in 3rd position, whilst a slight mistake from Tony in the final minute dropped him further back in the field to finish in a solid 6th position.

Stock 17.5 Final Results:

  1. Zak Finlay – XRAY X4’23
  2. Billy Fletcher
  3. Ricky Copsey – XRAY X4’23
  4. Martyn Ross
  5. James Hart
  6. Tony Broad XRAY X4’23
  7. Tim Langdell
  8. Mason Weston – XRAY X4
  9. Ethan Southall – XRAY X4
  10. Mark Buonaiuto
  11. Jon Gray

The team will be back at the same venue in around a month’s time for the EWS International 3-day race, where they will be looking to follow up with another very strong performance.