Volker gets one hand on ETS title with Leg 1 win
Ronald Volker moved a step closer to retaining the Yokomo Euro Touring Series title which he has held for the last two season with a tone to tone win in the opening A-Main of the season finale at the Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia. Starting from pole position, the factory Yokomo driver took the win by over 3-seconds from team-mate Yannic Prumper after a roll by the No.2 starting Tamiya of Marc Rheinard dropped his only title rival back down the order with the 3-time World Champion eventually finishing sixth.
Needing only a 3rd place finish in either of the remaining two Mains which would secure him 2nd overall and the title irrespective of where Rheinard ends up, Volker was pleased with his opening run. Making a impressive start, the German said Rheinard applied ‘a lot pressure’ but after his mistake on lap 5, which required the Tamiya to be marshaled, he said he was able to pace himself and reach his first goal for the day.
Rheinard said he had to drive 110% just to try and stay in touch with Volker adding that his roll which was caused by him catching the curbing was just a ‘stupid mistake’. The outspoken racer was critical of the grid spacing saying that they are too big and while they made for clean starts it was too hard to pull back the gaps they produced at the end of the opening lap. Declaring that his title hopes are all but over now he said his Much More powered TRF417 is working a little better today but with nothing to loose he will try a few small changes for Leg 2 to see if he can at least try and run with Volker for the full 5-minutes.
Finishing second Prumper said he lost touch with the leaders after he got hit and passed by Viktor Wilck on the first lap. The German said Wilck’s Tamiya was better over the opening lap but after 2 laps his BD7 felt really good and he was able to take back the position from the Swede for third which then became second when Alexander Hagberg retired with a tyre problem on his Xray.
The biggest mover of the race was Andy Moore who starting from 8th finished 4th. The 2006 World Champion said the race was ‘probably the best the car has been all weekend’. Having been in touch with Wilck’s Tamiya, the British driver said he lost pace when he came under attack from the recovering Rheinard with the pair making contact at the chicane. Having suffered radio problems on Thursday, Moore said they are only now catching up after the lost day and this was the first time he felt confident with his Hobbywing powered TCXX.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Top Qualifier Zdenko Kunak held off a train of cars to take his Yokomo to the win. The Slovak driver said it was a stressful race after his dad mixed up his cars preparing his Pro stock BD7 for his Modified B Final run. This meant his tyres were not correctly prepped for his A-Main run, the outgoing champion describing it as feeling like he was driving on ice. Despite this and intense pressure from Awesomatix’s Dominic Vogl, Kunak just held on for the win with the Top 4 covered by less than a second.
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