Volker celebrates 10th ETS win with Mattsee victory
He said after A1 he expected a stronger challenge from his team-mate and that is exactly what he got in A2, but in the end Ronald Volker was able to hold off intense pressure from Yannic Prumper to claim the overall win at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series fourth round in Mattsee, Austria. The win marks the defending champion’s 10th ETS race leaving him just 1 off the championship’s most winning driver Marc Rheinard who completed the Top 3 for second of the day’s A-Mains. In terms of the championship today’s victory together with bonus point for TQ means now only Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg, who is having a tough event at fahr(T)raum, can deny the Yokomo driver & his team their fourth consecutive Ride Modified title.
‘I’m done, that race aged me’ said a very clearly relieved Volker after the display of world class racing put on by himself & Prumper. As had predicted after A1, Volker said Prumper had the advantage of new tyres, which prior to today were more a distadvantage than used tyres, and their performances were reversed from the opening Main. Complimenting Prumper on keeping the highly intense battle so clean adding it ‘was a good show for those watching’, the European Champion looked to have early control of the race until he tapped his LRP powered BD7 off the boards allowing Prumper’s MuchMore powered example to close right up. ‘Working crazy hard’ to give the 20-year-old no room with only three potential passing spots on the track. With Prumper on fresher tyres Volker said this got more difficult as the race went on as his challenger had more steering and better forward traction. Delighted to take his winning tally to double digitals, him very keen to knock Rheinard from the top of the ETS winners table, the German said it had been ‘a great weekend’ thanking his sponsors Yokomo and LRP for their support and as always his race engineer Yukijiro Umino.
‘I just couldn’t find a place to pass’, that was how Prumper summed up his impressive challenge. The former race winner said with fresh tyres his BD7 was much better although it wasn’t until around the 2-minute mark at which they really came good. Making a move on the last lap which saw the two make contact, sending his own car crashing into the boards, he said there was a small gap and he ‘had a go but it didn’t happen’. Set to start at the front of the grid in A3, Volker sitting out the closing race, Prumper said his main focus is on the win and Marc Rheinard, the Tamiya driver the only one who can potential deny him helping make it a Yokomo 1-2 on the overall podium. With Rheinard starting fourth, his former team-mate said once he makes no mistakes the win in A3 should be no problem.
Finally getting by his team-mate Viktor Wilck, when the No.3 Tamiya driver tapped the boards and broke a C-Hub, Rheinard said it was too late to be able to do anything about the leading Yokomos. Encouraged by his comparable pace to both Volker & Prumper, he said his Much More powered TRF418, which is running a number of World Championship development parts, was ‘good’. Seeing off Marc Fischer, he admitted the Serpent driver had him under pressure for a time but he was able to break away from the challenge. With 2nd overall up for grabs in A3, he said he will go for it but added he needs to be careful that he doesn’t on the other hand throw away the chance of only his second podium finish of the season.
In the Xray Pro Stock class the overall win was also decided in A2 with Top Qualifier Jan Ratheisky seeing off a sterling challenge from Xray team-mate Marek Cerny. Cerny pushed the German hard over did with just over a minute to go hitting the boards and taking a corner off his car. Starting 5th on the grid Team C driver Tobias Seidl took second with another good run from Oliver Frank seeing him completing the A2 Top 3. In Formula, Ratheisky became the first champion of Season #7 as he took A2 for the overall win to defend his title in the growing category.
Ride Modified A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Ronald Volker (DE) – Team Yokomo – 24/5:00.269
2.(2) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Team Yokomo – 24/5:01.220
3.(4) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 24/5:01.777
4.(5) Marc Fischer (DE) – Team Serpent – 24/5:02.558
5.(7) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Team Xray – 24/5:08.888
6.(9) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 24/5:10.034
7.(6) Dominik Fleischmann (DE) – Team Yokomo – 24/5:11.113
8.(8) Freddy Sudhoff (DE) – Awesomatix – 24/5:12.775
9.(10)Andy Moore (GB) – HB – 24/5:14.131
10.(3)Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 10/1:59.795
Xray Pro-Stock A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Team Xray – 22/5:02.316
2.(5) Tobias Seidl (DE) – Team C – 22/5:05.987
3.(8) Oliver Franke (DE) – Awesomatix – 22/5:07.473
4.(7) Barnabas Toth (HU) – Yokomo – 22/5:08.362
5.(9) Tony Streit (DE) – Serpent – 22/5:10.172
6.(3) Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 22/5:10.701
7.(4) Henrik Heitsch (DE) – ARC – 22/5:11.452
8.(10)Florian Botzenhart (DE) – Team C – 21/5:01.667
9.(2) Marek Cerny (CZ) – Team Xray – 17/3:49.874
10.(6)Andreas Myberg (SE) – Xray – 17/3:59.043
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