Rheinard wins, title to be decided at Hudy Arena
Marc Rheinard has won the penultimate round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series ahead of Ronald Volker meaning that the two great rivals will battle it out for the overall title at the season finale at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia next month. After the chaos of Leg 2, the closing race in Traiskirchen was a much calmer affair with Top Qualifier Rheinard seeing off the close attention of Yokomo drivers Yannic Prumper and Volker to take the leg and the overall win which he needed to keep his title hopes alive.
Delighted to back up his Round 4 win and collect his second maximium points haul of the season, his TQ for the race earning him an extra bonus point, the former World Champion said while the first two Mains didn’t go to plan the final outcome was what he came here looking for. Irate after the happenings in Leg 2 and not wanting to comment on the race at the time, Rheinard said the incident combined with the pressure of the only result that would do being the win, emotions ran very high. He said going ‘from a safe win to a DNF in a couple of seconds’, after being hit by Andy Moore, was hugely frustrating and while his reaction at the time was full of emotion once he went away had a drink and cleared his head he could refocus on the job in hand. With Andy Moore apologizing for the incident, Rheinard said he knew the British ace didn’t hit him intentionally and it is all behind them now joking that he will be happy to drink a beer with the HB driver but ‘he can buy the first one’. Commenting on the final outcome of the weekend, the Top 3 all finishing on equal points, Rheinard said it would have ‘of course been better if Volker had finished third’, but the main thing is the championship battle goes to Slovakia.
Volker said he was disappointed at not being able to win the event and wrap up the championship as ‘they clearly had the pace and most of the time were faster than Marc (Rheinard)’. Starting from 3rd on the grid, a traction roll in Q1 was costly for the German, he said winning was always going to be difficult although the opening A-Main showed it was not impossible. While he would have much rather be leaving Austria with a third consecutive ETS title, the reigning European Champion said the championship being decided in Slovakia will create great interest in the race and he is looking forward to the showdown.
Prumper, who came into the event with an outside chance of the title that is now gone, said considering how the weekend started out and how his car ran in practice the result was ‘OK’ for him. Last year’s winner, when the ETS made its first visit to the unique Traiskirchen venue, the 19-year-old said he struggled a little at the start of the third leg with understeer but as the race went on his Much More powered BD7 improved and he was able to close right in on Rheinard but he said the risks were too high to try and make a pass with both Volker and Moore very close behind him. His third podium finish of the season, Prumper said he was more determined than ever to go for the win at the next race.
Missing out on the podium was Leg 2 winner Alexander Hagberg, the factory Xray driver finishing fourth ahead of fellow Swede Viktor Wilck who broke in the final A-Main. A race winner last season, Hagberg had a reasonable weekend in Austria considering the last few ETS races but with Round 6 at a track he knows extremely well due to it being where Xray develops its cars he will be one to watch. Although he only finished 6th, despite taking 4th in Legs 1 & 3, many onlookers commented on how well Moore drove this weekend. The 2006 World Champion intially struggled in practice but made a big step forward after making a significant discovery as to how he sets up his TCXX.
In the Xray Pro Stock class the third A-Main saw the biggest class in the ETS put on another great race which was won by the Awesomatix of 16-year-old Dominic Vogl. A hugely popular race win, unfortunately for the Austrian his winning time was 2/10ths of a second too slow and it was Xray’s Marek Cerny, who was only fourth in the leg, who took the overall win. His third win of the season, the Czech driver was delighted with the win after his terrible run at Apeldoorn. Although he moves closer to the title, defending Champion Zdenko Kunak’s chances of retaining the title coming to an end in Austria after a tough event, Cerny still needs to do well at the season finale but should he win it will be the perfect place to win his first title. Former Champion Martin Hofer and his Schumacher completed the podium.
The Speed Passion Formula class saw Roman Pichler again get the better of Top Qualifier Jan Asmer in Leg 3 to claim the win and his second overall victory of the season. However for Asmer second on the podium ahead of current champion Herbert Weber was enough to secure the Serpent driver the overall 2012/13 ETS title.
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