Volker fends off Coelho in A1
Ronald Volker saw off intense pressure from Bruno Coelho to win the opening A-Main at Round 3 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Austria this morning. Top Qualifier for the race, the only let up for Volker came when Coelho’s car tapped the boards but he quickly recovered with his Xray again all over the rear bumper of the Yokomo. Despite laying down the fastest lap of the final on his penultimate lap, a slow final lap meant Volker would hold on to win by 3/10th of a second. Behind them Viljami Kutvonen would complete the Top 3 almost 4-seconds back, the Awesomatix driver benefiting from Alexander Hagberg making contact with Marc Rheinard in the 2nd minute of the race. Rheinard would end the race 4th, 9/10th back from Viljami followed by Hagberg and Team Associated’s Juho Levanen.
‘Super happy with A1’ was how a relieved Volker summed up what he would go on to describe as ‘one of the most pressured races ‘he’s done’. Chasing his first win of the ETS season, the reigning champion said, ‘Bruno was hanging on my ass for the first two minutes but then I managed to get a small gap which meant I didn’t have to worry every corner about having him on my tail’. Hoping for another clean race in A2, the German said, ‘(he) was able to see where (Coelho) was faster which might help for A2’ adding ‘we won’t be changing the car’.
Coelho described the race as ‘very good’ adding it was ‘amazing to race close and clean’. With the fastest lap of the race which was 2/10th faster than that of Volker, said ‘congratulation to Volker, he defended well’. Looking to A2, the joint championship leader continued, ‘I will try to do the same, actually, better in the next one but the track is super tight’.
‘Pretty much how I planned it’ was Viljami’s response to how his race had gone, continuing ‘there was an accident in front of me and that promoted to third’. Collecting Hagberg’s car after the Xray made contact with Rehinard after the fast chicane, Viljami said this left his A800 ‘a little tweaked’ but he was still able to ‘cruise’ the rest of the race. Describing his car as ‘OK’ before the incident, he is undecided as to whether to make a set-up change, his fastest lap one of the slowest of the race.
Rheinard’s reaction to the race was, ‘I thought I had a good starting position but probably not’. Describing his start as good, the winner of the season opener said he ‘just tried to stay with Bruno and not hit him but then got hit by Alex’. While the contact from Hagberg was ‘not on purpose, just unlucky’, the 4-time World Champion said it ‘ruined’ his race’. With his car TRF419X ‘really good’, the German is hoping for a cleaner A2.
Also describing his car as ‘really good’, Hagberg said when Rheinard went wide in the chicane he tried to pass but they ‘came together’. Given a penalty for the failed pass, the Swede said ‘It was my fault I guess’ adding he’d ‘try again the next final’.
In Pro Stock and Formula Jan Ratheisky had a very successful start to his day taking both A-Mains from the TQ pretty much unchallenged over the 5-minutes. In the Serpent Formula class, the Xray driver put in a dominant drive to win by 2-seconds from the Roche of Olivier Bultynck. Behind them Serpent’s David Ehrbar would get by the No.3 Yokomo of Andreas Myberg to complete the Top 3. In the Xray Pro Stock encounter, Ratheisky led an Xray 1-2 from reigning champion Marek Cerny who mounted a late charge followed by a recovering Tony Streit, the latter having got a penalty for a contact with Valentin Hettrich on the opening lap.
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