Rheinard cruises to A1 win at German ETS
Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard cruised to an unchallenged win in the opening A-Main at Round 2 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series tonight in Germany. Posting the fastest lap of the race the Top Qualifier would win by a 1.4-seconds from the number 2 starting Yokomo of Ronald Volker and new Serpent signing Viktor Wilck both benefiting from an mistake by Yannic Prumper which saw the Yokomo driver crash out while running second.
‘So far its a copy of Hrotovice’ was Rheinard’s reaction after his win, the German referring to Round 1 of the championship when he TQ’d and took A1 only to crash out in A2 and ended up leaving the Czech Republic with only 4th place. Continuing ‘this time though I still have good tyres’, he said he knew Volker might not be so quick at the start and he was able to use this to build up a ‘small gap’. Expecting Volker would let Prumper through if he hadn’t found speed for A1 he said by the time he did that he knew that while he might be able to catch him, passing would be another thing so he never felt under threat. Pleased with his car, the championship’s most winning driver said other than check it over he would run it as is for A2 tomorrow morning.
Changing to a different set of tyres and back to his Q2 set-up, Volker said the oversteer he suffered in Q4 turn to understeer. Lacking overall grip in the opening laps, the reigning champion said he let his team-mate Prumper through but after 2-minutes his BD7 got better and he was able to match Rheinard’s pace, Prumper having crashed out after 8-laps. With Wilck running all over the back of his car for the first part of the race, he said he was able to break away from the Swede once his car improved. Winner of the Season #8 opener, Volker said they have no choice but to again try something with the set-up for A2 as a last chance effort to go for the overall win.
Accepting congratulation from his new team for his efforts to try and get by Volker, Wilck said ‘I just couldn’t find a way passed Ronald’. Describing his S411 as feeling really good he said even with his car much better than the Yokomo at the end of the straight Volker was able to block him. Making heavy contact with the boards through the chicane he said that ended his challenge for second with the car feeling tweaked after the impact. Looking forward to tomorrow’s remaining two Mains, he said his A1 performance was very encouraging and already he was able to show the potential that lies with his new team.
Asked about his off after the chicane, Prumper said he was pushing hard to try and make up the gap to Rheinard and just clipped the boards causing his car to shoot off at the hairpin. Having got by last year’s race winner Alexander Hagberg on lap 6, Christopher Krapp would be promoted to fourth by Prumper’s retirement with the Kyosho driver holding position to the end ahead of Hagberg with Marc Fischer completing the Top 6.
There were also easy wins for Top Qualifiers Marek Cerny and Jan Ratheisky in the opening Pro Stock and Formula A-Mains. In Pro Stock such was Cerny’s lead the reigning champion was able to back off over the final three laps to head home an Xray 1-2 over team-mate Mike Gosvig with an impressive drive from ARC backed driver Helge Johannessen netting the towering Norwegian third. In Formula Ratheisky was a class act and despite the best efforts of Ride Modified A-Main starter Bruno Coelho he won by almost 2-seconds with Gosvig making a 1-2-3 for the championship winning Xray X1.
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