Rheinard ends 5-year ETS carpet win drought in Germany
Marc Rheinard took a significant victory at Round 2 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Germany today, the win marking the Tamiya driver’s first ETS win on carpet in 5-years. The last indoor win for the championship’s most winning driver came in Warsaw, Poland, in 2010, the year the 4-time World Champion claimed his one and only ETS title. Having taken an unchallenged A1 win last night at the Muelheim-Kaerlich event, Rheinard secured his 13th ETS victory by cruising to another easy win over reigning champion Ronald Volker in A2.
‘A good weekend’ was Rheinard’s reaction, him adding ‘I can’t remember the last time I won an ETS race on carpet’. ‘After the disappointment of Hrotovice I needed to try to come back into contention for the overall championship and this is a good start’. Top Qualifier for the record breaking entry race, as he was at the season opener in the Czech Republic but where he ended up only finishing 4th, the German said the weekend shows Tamiya have made progress with the TRF419 and they are now going in the right direction for the future. Although supported by TRF engineer and competent racer Takayuki Kono who qualified in the B-Main, Rheinard said the win was also important following the departure of longtime team-mate Viktor Wilck with him joking ‘the next race it will be a Tamiya 1-2 with Naoto (Matsukura)’. Making a shock switch from Yokomo to Tamiya last month, World Champion Matsukura is expected to attend Round 3 of the ETS when the championship makes its long awaited return to Italy.
Having a pretty lonely race, helped by Wilck making contact with Yannic Prumper on lap 2, Volker who won the season opener said ‘you cant win them all’. The Yokomo driver said after struggling last night with his BD7, they took the gamble to use a set-up very close to that of Yokomo team-mate Loic Jasmin, the French Champion enjoying a strong event this weekend. Also changing tyres and opting to do no warm-up at all, Yukijiro Umino placing his car directly on the grid for the start, the 4-time back to back champion said the ‘gamble didn’t pay off’ and the car had too much understeer. While the car improved over the 5-minutes, his fastest lap being his last lap, he suspects even had he caught up to Rheinard his rival had more speed in reserve. With second overall still open, he said they will again have to takes risks for A3 and switch back to his qualifying set of tyres to try and improve rear traction so as he can hopefully keep the field behind him and secure the win, Rheinard sitting out the closing race of the event which attracted 408 entries.
Describing the contact from Wilck as ‘bad luck’, Prumper who had a DNF in A1 said luckily he was able to get back passed Alexander Hagberg and Christopher Krapp for third. Starting second for A3 behind Volker, the third place qualifier said with 2nd overall still possible he would be going maximum attack for the leg win. Although he struggled with the rear of his car being loose early in the run he said overall the track had less traction than in A1 but expecting that to improve for A3 he will not make any set-up changes.
Finishing fourth after getting passed by Prumper on the penultimate lap, Krapp said it was ‘a very exciting final’ for him and he ‘really enjoyed’ the battle with his fellow countryman. Putting a really good move on Hagberg at the hairpin after the chicane, the Kyosho team driver said his car had Top 3 pace but he needs to get by Hagberg quicker, last year’s winner struggling this weekend.
Setting the fastest lap of the race, Wilck was pretty annoyed being called in for a Stop & Go penalty for his contact with Prumper. With his Serpent S411 very loose at the start of the race, the Swede said he unintentionally slid into the back of Prumper immediately waiting to give back position only then to be called to also serve a penalty. With his race over after the Stop & Go as he dropped to 9th on a track where passing is proving almost impossible, he said while the car was fast, him setting the fastest lap of the race, it was difficult to drive as his ‘tyres are done’. Third in A1 and therefore still a contender for a podium finish in his Serpent debut he will run his other set of tyres for A3.
In the Xray Pro Stock class, A2 also saw the overall win decided as Mareck Cerny repeated another unchallenged tone to tone win. The first win of the season for the back to back defending champion, Cerny would win A2 from Awesomatix’ Max Mächler and Czech Republic winner Lars Hoppe. For Cerny’s team-mates Mike Gosvig and Jan Ratheisky, who started directly behind him on the grid, it was not a good race as Gosvig made a mistake half way in while holding second and Ratheisky got into the side of A1 third place finisher Helge Johannessen. In Formula, Ratheisky had no such issues as he did a 2013 season Sebastian Vettel and left the rest of the field in his track to secure the overall win, the second of the season for the ETS Champion.
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