Day 2 opens at RROC with wins for Rheinard, Vejrak and Matsukura
A cold start to the second day of racing at the Reedy Race of Champions in California, it was overnight points leader Marc Rheinard who got proceedings underway at Tamiya Raceway with his fourth win from five races. Winner of two encounters yesterday, Meen Vejrak would bring his tally to three with a very easy win in Race 2 over Nicolas Lee and defending champion Ronald Volker. After a tough opening day that left him sitting 14th in the points, World Champion Naoto Matsukura registered his first win but declared the victory over Juho Levanen a ‘lucky’ one.
Pushed hard by Xray’s Alexander Hagberg in the latter half of the race, the pair having started on the front row, Rheinard said ‘because it’s way colder the car didn’t feel good’. With the front biting and the rear loose, the 4-time champion said he tried to keep it safe and not push too hard. Set to start round 6 from 3rd behind Matsukura with Volker 8th on the grid, he said he would ‘drive with his brain a little bit’ adding he’d ‘be happy with a 2nd or 3rd’.
Starting on the outside of the front row alongside Team Associated’s Rick Hohwart, Vejrak said he ‘got a lucky start’ and once in front he was able to control the race with a ‘safe drive’. Third in the overnight standings, the Yokomo driver said while it was a ‘good start to the day’ his BD7 had too much steering and was loose on the rear making it tricky to drive. Hoping the weather warms up for the second of the day’s four races he said closer to the Round 6 he will decide whether to make a set-up change or not.
Running in the same race as Vejrak, team-mate Volker was frustrated with his starting draws for today’s action. Starting from 8th on the grid, the same place he will start again in the next round, he managed to finish third behind Nicolas Lee. Having only looked at his starting order for Day 2 on arriving at the track this morning he said all he can hope for today is Top 3 finishes adding ‘hopefully that will be enough for a final podium placing’. With starting from the back of the grid, he starts Round 7 from 9th, he said the racing is already difficult enough with his arch rival Rheinard having much better starting positions. The German, who set the fastest lap of the round by a considerable margin, said with over half the event still to run ‘anything can happen’ and he would just take it round by round.
Matsukura said he only won because 1:8 Offroad World Champion Ty Tessmann rolled his HB 5-laps into the race while leading. Although he was able to drive the rest of the race ‘easy’ to take the win he said compared to his key rivals he is not competitive and for Round 6 he will switch to a different car.
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