Völker sees off Prümper to win first A-Main
Euro Touring Series Round 2 Top Qualifier Ronald Volker led a 1-2 finish for Team Yokomo in the opening A-Main of the Ride Modified class in Italy but the champion was made work hard for the win as team-mate Yannic Prümper mounted a serious challenge over the race’s closing laps. Seperated by just 8/100th as they crossed the finish line, the pair were the class of the field with Tamiya Racing Factory’s Marc Rheinard finishing a distant third.
Happy with the result for his team, Volker was not so happy with his own personal performance over the 5-minute encounter saying he did not drive with the same level of confidence as yesterday which resulted in some less than perfect lines. After catching a number of corner dots in the opening laps the German ace tried to take a more safe approach which was fine until Prümper found his rhythm and closed in. Forced to push once again he started to make very small errors allowing his teenage team-mate to further reduce the gap. Volker said his LRP powered BD5 is working fine and it is his driving that he needs to focus his attentions on.
Setting the fastest lap, Prümper said his car only came good around half way into the race. Suffering with understeer over the opening laps this forced him to defend his position from former team-mate Rheinard. With the World Champion eventually dropping back the former race winner had a clear track to close in on the leader. Looking on a number of occasions to make a move on Volker, Prümper said he didn’t want to take any risks and was only willing to try a pass if he was sure it could be a clean one. Planning to apply additive to his front tyres for longer for the second A-Main he hopes he can challenge for the win from the start and force the first ever Italian ETS race to go down to the third leg.
Rheinard said after his car ran the first two race laps and the tyres warmed up he felt like he might be able to mount some sort of challenge but at around the two minute mark the title contender said the performance just dropped off. Leaving him to run a lonely race to third, he said he is totally lost as to what to do to cure the sudden lack of pace his TRF417 develops.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Steffen Leinburger got the better of Top Qualifier Zdenko Kunák to take the win in what was also a close opening A-Main. The German Hot Bodies driver won from the Xray of the current championship leader by 6/10th while former Hobby Class Champion Michal Orlowski put in a great drive to complete the Top 3. Driving a Tamiya the young Polish talent who is making his first Pro Stock A-Main appearance started the race from 8th on the grid.
Ride Modified Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 24/5:10.118
2.(2) Yannic Prümper (DE) – Yokomo/Speed Passion – 24/5:10.199
3.(3) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 24/5:13.925
4.(7) Eric Dankel (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 23/5:03.514
5.(6) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho/Orion – 23/5:03.820
6.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/LRP – 23/5:05.030
7.(5) Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Thunder Power – 23/5:07.103
8.(8) Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/HPI Flux – 23/5:11.286
9.(9) Loic Jasmin (FR) – Yokomo/LRP – 23/5:11.430
10.(10)Dominik Fleischmann (DE) – Hot Bodies/LRP – 10/2:11.887
Xray Pro-Stock Leg 1 Result
1.(2) Steffen Leinburger (DE) – Hot Bodies – 22/5:07.561
2.(1) Zdenko Kunák (SK) – Xray – 22/5:08.121
3.(8) Michal Orlowski (PL) – Tamiya – 22/5:12.389
4.(5) Oliver Franke (DE) – Hot Bodies – 22/5:13.927
5.(9) Fabian Bucher (DE) – Xray – 22/5:14.099
6.(4) Felix Wiessmann (DE) – Yokomo – 21/5:00.895
7.(6)Alessio Menicucci (IT) – Xray – 21/5:01.439
8.(3) Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 21/5:07.209
9.(10)Francesco Martini (IT) – Xray – 21/5:09.372
10.(7)Philip Tschupp (CH) – TOP – 21/5:11.871
View the complete results here.
View the event image gallery here.
