Rheinard & Fadtke win first A-Main
The first A-Main of the third round of the Euro Touring Series has been run with Marc Rheinard and Dennis Fadtke taking the respective Modified and Pro Stock wins. Starting from pole, Rheinard took an easy victory while Fadtke won a thrilling race from 9th on the grid with a great move on Top Qualifier Daniel Wohlgemuth at the final corner.
There was drama at the Sport-V-Hotel this morning just as the Modified C Final, in which the 200mm World Champion Daniele Ielasi is competing, were lining up on the grid. Melting snow on the roof of the hall had caused a number of leaks in the roof right over part of the track, forcing race director Scotty Ernst to halt proceedings and make the call of a track redesign to avoid the wet area. Thanks to the efforts of the host club racing resumed in around an hour with drivers given an extra minute of warm-up to adjust to the new layout.
First of the A-Main’s was Pro Stock. Unfortunately championship leader Alexander Stocker had to return home after his daughter became ill last night leaving the No.2 spot on the grid blank. With the extra gap over the pack it looked like the No.1 Hot Bodies of Daniel Wohlgemuth was checking out after the opening lap but the German made a mistake on lap 3 dropping him down the field and allowing local star Jiri Mara to take the lead but on lap 6 he too made a mistake. Russian Ivan Laptev was the new driver to lead but all the time Wohleguth was working his way back to the front. Eventually retaking the lead Wohlgemuth made another mistake this time with three laps to go allowing Fadtke, who was enjoying a superb drive from the back of the grid, to close right on his bumper. Coming to the last corner Fadkte pulled off a fantastic move getting his Tamiya down the inside to take the win by just 4/100th of a second.
Afterwards the winner said he was a little lucky in the race to get up front but that his adjustments to the front end of this Speed Passion powered TRF416WE had transformed it compared with qualifying. Wohlgemuth was clearly annoyed with himself for making two mistakes while leading and for miss judging the position of the timing loop but gave Fadkte credit for a great overtaking maneuver. Finishing third Ivan Laptev, who started the race in 5th, described the race as ‘very exciting and a lot fun’ and despite having led at one point was pleased to finish in the Top 3. Schumacher Racing’s Chris Ashton, who ran as high as second, finished 4th and hopes that with a little more steering on his Mi4LP for Leg 2 he can finish in the Top 3.
In contrast to the Pro Stock final the Modified race was a far more straight forward affair. In the early laps Levanen put a lot of pressure on Wilck for second but the Finn couldn’t find a way passed his Scandinavan neighbour and they finished how they had started. The big battle of the race was for fifth with Martin Hudy pushed all the way by Steen Graversen, with Elliot Harper and Zdenko Kunák joining the action in the latter part of the race. Hudy resisted the challenge and took fifth behind fellow Xray driver Zdenek Hamak. Finishing sixth from 10th on the grid Danish ace Graversen, who was feeling ill yesterday, said he was feeling a lot better today and that was reflected in his driving. All the drivers admitted that while traction was low on the new section of the track they actually preferred it.
Pro Stock A-main Leg 1 results
1. Fadtke Dennis – 18 Laps in 5:15.131
2. Wohlgemuth Daniel – 18 Laps in 5:15.171
3. Laptev Ivan – 18 Laps in 5:16.995
4. Ashton Chris – 17 Laps in 5:02.982
5. Klöckner René – 17 Laps in 5:03.196
6. Rajki Balint – 17 Laps in 5:03.780
7. Madsen Carsten – 17 Laps in 5:04.580
8. Mara Jiri – 17 Laps in 5:11.137
9. Schmidt Martin – 17 Laps in 5:12.681
10.Stocker Alexander – DNS
Modified A-main Leg 1 results
1. Rheinard Marc – 19 Laps in 5:12.719
2. Wilck Viktor – 19 Laps in 5:13.764
3. Levanen Juho – 19 Laps in 5:14.376
4. Hamak Zdenek – 18 Laps in 5:00.367
5. Hudy Martin – 18 Laps in 5:03.748
6. Graversen Steen – 18 Laps in 5:03.897
7. Harper Elliott – 18 Laps in 5:04.133
8. Kunák Zdenko – 18 Laps in 5:04.672
9. Moore Andy – 18 Laps in 5:05.386
10.Jefferies Olly – 18 Laps in 5:09.010
Full results can be found here.
View our event image gallery here.
