Rheinard ‘Top Qualifier’ in Austria
Marc Rheinard is Top Qualifier at the penultimate round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Traiskirchen, Austria. The Tamiya driver secured the honour, and the all important bonus championship point that goes with it, by posting the second fastest time in Q4 behind Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper with Xray’s Tim Wahl, who like Prumper was also on fresh tyres, completing the Top 3. The penultimate qualifier would see a troubled run for Ronald Volker and Alexander Hagberg that would see both drivers DNF.
One of four drivers who came to Round 5 of the championship still in contention for the title, Rheinard was relieved to claim his second consecutive ETS TQ having expected the battle to go down to the fifth & final qualifier. Opting to run his Q2 tyres for a third time so as to save his Q1 tyres for the final run when everyone would be on old tyres, he said his TRF417 didn’t start out too well but improved as the run progressed. At the end of the 5-minutes the 3-time World Champion was just .282 off Prumper, the pair being the only drivers to record 21 lap runs. Happy to be starting up front, the German said he hopes a final good run by Prumper, Andy Moore or Marc Fischer can help to put more cars between him and his great rival Volker who is provisionally holding second on the grid for tomorrow’s three leg A-Main. Asked about the track layout for racing, Rheinard said while over taking will be hard always hitting the correct line is also difficult and as seen in qualifying mistakes are costly so he expects 15-minutes of intense racing.
Prumper, who along with Viktor Wilck is also in with a chance of the title although so far that challenge looks to be fading, said his car was the best it has been all weekend. Running a harder shock set-up he said this improved the feel of his BD7 but added that ultimately the TQ run was down to his fresh tyres. While Prumper was pleased to turn around his performance somewhat, team-mate Volker was very disappointed with how Q4 went. Running ahead of Rheinard when he had his roll, which he said they cannot understand given the car was on used tyres, he said it would have been a close finish. Pulling up to save his tyres, the European Champion said he will be giving his all in the last qualifier in an attempt to give himself the best chance of securing second on the grid.
While 18-year-old Wahl enjoyed his best run saying it somewhat made up for back luck he had in the earlier qualifiers, Xray’s lead driver Alexander Hagberg got hit with some cruel luck. Switching to his fresh second set of Ride tyres, the Swede was on a quick run until his T4 shut down 3-laps from the finish with a electric problem.
Posting the fourth fastest time, Serpent’s Marc Fischer ran a geardiff in the front of his S411 which while it made the car a little lazy improved the car’s on-power steering. Overall the German was pretty pleased with the result which books him a place in the A-Main meaning he can attack 100% in the final qualifier and challenge for that 2nd place starting position which is still up for grabs.
In the Xray Pro Stock class, the fourth round of qualifying also saw the Top Qualifier decided with Marek Cerny claiming it as he posted his third TQ run, each driver’s best three of the five qualifiers counting. The Xray team driver, who will sit out the final qualifier to save his tyres for the finals, said after the problems he experienced in Apeldoorn, when he failed to make the A-Main after 2 DNFs in qualifying, it was nice to again take the TQ, his third of the season. Commenting on the race the Czech driver says he expects a tough race with Viljami Kutvonen adding that the Finnish driver is ‘very fast’.
Ride Modified Q4 times
1. Yannic Prümper – Yokomo – 21/5:14.181
2. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 21/5:14.463
3. Tim Wahl – Xray – 20/5:00.844
4. Marc Fischer – Serpent – 20/5:03.021
5. Andy Moore – HB – 20/5:03.878
6. René Klöckner – Yokomo – 20/5:04.250
7. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 20/5:04.952
8. Elliott Harper – Durango – 20/5:04.992
9. Magnus Vässmar – Xray – 20/5:05.857
10.Martin Hudy – Xray – 20/5:06.764
Xray Pro Stock Q4 times
1. Marek Cerny (CZ) – Xray – 19/5:07.596
2. Viljami Kutvonen – Awesomatix – 19/5:07.997
3. Martin Hofer – Schumacher – 19/5:09.017
4. Valetin Hettrich – Xray – 19/5:10.160
5. Dominic Vogl – Awesomatix – 19/5:12.205
6. Jan Asmer – Serpent – 19/5:12.208
7. Tobias Vogel – Xray – 19/5:12.273
8. Jerome Meile – Xray – 19/5:12.931
9. David Nemcek – Xray – 19/5:13.111
10.Zdenko Kunak – Yokomo – 19/5:13.474
View the complete event results here.
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