Volker, Vejrak & Rheinard win opening RROC encounters
After a delayed start due to overnight rain, the opening round of racing at this year’s Reedy Internatonal Touring Car Race of Champion resulted in pretty straight forward wins for defending champion Ronald Volker, Meen Vejrak and Marc Rheinard. Starting from second on the grid alongside pole starter Ryan Cavalieri, Volker took a much expected convincing win in the opening race of the event followed by Serpent’s Viktor Wilck who started on the second row alongside another off road star, Ty Tessman. In the second heat, it was 16-year-old Yokomo driver Andrew Hardman who led the way for the first five laps before being passed by team-mate Vejrak who had started from 10th on the grid. Later in Hardman would lose 2nd to Tamiya’s Christopher Krapp as Vejrak cruised to victory up front. Concluding the first of the 12 rounds of heads up race, in Heat 3 four time Reedy Race champion Marc Rheinard, starting from 7th on the grid, took just three laps to get to the front to win ahead of team-mates Akio Sobue and Nicholas Lee.
Commenting on his winning start to the 18th running of the famous event, Volker was ‘glad to get a win from the front row’. The German said he ‘got lucky at the start as Cavalieri ran wide’ allowing him to go through adding that his BD7 had a lack of grip for the first 3 to 4 laps. As the tyres came in he was able to pull away and towards the end of the race was able to drive to save his tyres for Round 2, drivers having to run the same set of tyres twice in consecutive races to stop tyre strategy coming into play. With all three Round 1 winners grouped in the same heat for the second round, Volker said considering the line-up his aim from 7th on the grid is a Top 2 finish.
’10th to 1st is a good start’, that was how Vejrak summed up his race. The former Nitro Touring Car World Champion said his BD7 was ‘perfect and easy to drive’. Opening up a lead over Hardman he said he was able to slow down and save his tyres. In Round 2 the Thai driver will start last of the Round 1 winners lining up 8th on the grid alongside Volker while Rheinard will be starting at the front.
In a race that saw early leader Charlie Phutiyotin suffering a questionable body tuck as Freddy Sudhoff passed him for the lead, the HB driver posting the fastest lap of the 3 heats, Rheinard said ‘after everyone had some issues in front it was easy after that’. The 4-time world Champion said even though Volker is starting towards the back in the next one he expects that ‘Ronald is going to catch me’ and the race is going to take a little more effort the opening one.
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