Volker’s domination continues with victory in opening final
Ronald Volker has taken a convincing win in the opening leg of the Xenon Modified final here in Kastellaun this morning heading home old rival Marc Rheinard. Starting from pole the Team Yokomo driver continued his domination of the event leading from start to finish but afterwards said the race was not as straight forward as it looked. With his LRP powered BD5 working well at the start he was able to pull a gap on the pack but in the latter part of the race the car become very loose. ‘I had to drive very carefully in the last part of the race. I knew Marc was fast but I could see he was taking a lot risks so I just tried to stay cool and focus on my driving to maintain the gap and it payed off as he made a few mistakes’.
Setting the fastest lap of the race Rheinard was happy with his Speed Passion powered Tamiya but not himself, ‘The car was working better now but I made too many small mistakes’. Having started 3rd, the German got passed Freddy Sudhoff and looked to be making inroads on Volker but a number of mistakes canceled out his progress. The World Champion will leave his TRF416 set-up the as is but will replace the rear arms as one has become a little sloppy.
The start of the race didn’t go as planned for ‘Fast Freddy’ Sudhoff, the Hot Bodies driver saying he had too much traction and in the opening part of the race it was a challenge to keep it on four wheels. As the race progressed the handling improved allowing the German to recover and find a way passed factory Associated driver Juho Levanen for third. Sudhoff, whose TCX is fitted with a self created chassis plate, said he will change his tyre prep for the next final and leave the set-up as is. Levanen enjoyed a great start to the race going from 6th to 3rd. Having a great battle with Sudhoff he said he eventually had to let the German go and settle for fourth as his TC6 lost pace after the 3 minute mark.
Last year’s winner Viktor Wilck who lined up fourth on the grid saw his chances end on the opening lap after Dominik Fleishmann made contact with the rear of his Tamiya causing the body to tuck. Despite being able to run a similar pace in terms of lap times to Volker and team-mate Rheinard he would only finished 9th.
In the Xray Pro-Stock final, Top Qualifier Eric Dankel took a very convincing victory to head home an Xray 1-2 with Tim Wahl finishing second. The German said he was helped by the early battle for second which gave him the chance to make a break. With Pro-Stock drivers permitted a new set of Xenon tyres for the finals, Dankel opted to change and was very happy with how the car worked on the fresh rubber. Martin Hofer, who was expected to be his main challenge, also ran fresh tyres but his Yokomo didn’t respond as well causing his BD5 to be very edgy for the first part of the race. The runner-up here last year, he said nerves also got the better of him saying he thought too much about the race rather than just getting on with driving. With Hofer out of sorts it allowed 16-year-old Wahl to take second. Starting from 4th on the grid the German was delighted by his performance and is hopeful of repeating it in the next race.
Defending champion Alexander Stocker, who has switched from his Hot Bodies to Hofer’s spare Yokomo chassis, set the fastest lap of the race but an early incident hampered his progress and he could only finished 6th. Encouraged by the handling of the BD5, the winner of this race on the last three occasions is confident of better thing in Legs 2 & 3.
Xenon Modified Result – Leg 1
1. Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 32/5:05.579
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 32/5:06.641
3. Frederik Südhoff (DE) – Hot Bodies/LRP – 31/5:01.790
4. Juho Levanen (FI) – Associated/LRP – 31/5:02.02.018
5. Yannic Prümper (DE) – Yokomo/Speedpassion – 31/5:07.094
6. Dominik Fleischmann (DE) – Hot Bodies/LRP – 31/5:07.882
7. Elliott Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 31/5:08.312
8. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/LRP – 31/5:08.555
9. Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 31/5:08.825
10.Lucas Urbain (FR) – Losi/Speedpassion – 28/4:40.160
Xray Pro-Stock Result – Leg 1
1. Eric Dankel (DE) – Xray – 30/5:06.649
2. Tim Wahl (DE) – Xray – 30/5:10.243
3. Martin Hofer (DE) – Yokomo – 29/5:00.387
4. Ivan Laptev (RU) – Tamiya – 29/5:01.976
5. René Klöckner (DE) – Tamiya – 29/5:04.067
6. Alexander Stocker (DE) – Yokomo – 29/5:04.734
7. Oliver Franke (DE) – Hot Bodies – 29/5:05.022
8. Tony Streit (DE) – Xray – 29/5:07.321
9. Daniel Wohlgemuth (DE) – Xray – 29/5:09.332
10.Carsten Madsen (DK) – Tamiya – 28/5:04.356
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