Volker wins again in Round 7 but so does Rheinard
Having gained some ground on points leader Marc Rheinard in the day’s second round of racing with a win, defending Reedy Race Champion Ronald Volker continued his fight back with a third victory as the famous heads up racing event entered the second half. Winning Round 7’s opening encounter from 9th on the grid, having pulled back 4 points on his rival in the previous encounter, the Yokomo driver however wouldn’t reduce the gap further as his rival snatched a late victory in Race 3. While the two best touring car drivers in the world added a win to their tally, them separated by 2-points, the round would see one of the best offroad drivers in the world register his first. Starting from the front row of the grid Ryan Cavalieri would win Race 2 convincingly over his experienced Team Associated touring car team-mates Juho Levanen and Keven Hebert.
Having only registered a single win yesterday, but already with two wins and a second for today, Volker said he is ‘having a way better day than yesterday’. Starting from the back row of the grid, he was ‘only hoping for a Top 3’ and so the win over Christopher Krapp was ‘super good’. With Rheinard matching him with his win, the 4-time back to back ETS Champion said ‘Marc needs to hit trouble in the next few races if I am to have any chance of the win’. Admitting that there was still a long way to go in the event he said he would just continue to approach the race round by round but ‘finally getting to start from the front row again’ for the day’s final race he is hopeful he can end the day with a win.
Getting by Alexander Hagberg when the pair touched as they exited the sweeper with 4-laps to go, the Swede’s Xray flying off into the fencing, Rheinard notched up an impressive 5th win from 7 races. Commenting on the incident with Hagberg, there being some history between the pair, Rheinard said his TRF419 was ‘really good’ and he knew he was faster. ‘Waiting’ behind as he knew Meen Vejrak was closing and any contact would hand the Thai driver the lead, he said he went close to Hagberg to put pressure on him leading him to run wide through the sweeper. With Hagberg opening the door again through the sweeper the reigning 1:12 World Champion said he went for the pass and running side by side they touched. Going over to Hagberg’s pit after the race to confirm with him that it was a ‘side by side racing’ incident the TITC Champion agreed it was. Despite his T4 bouncing off the fencing Hagberg would still secure a second for the round. Going to the front after a mistake from early leader Ty Tessmann, he said he made a good start from 7th on the grid and the race was going really well until he ‘opened the door a little for Marc’ adding ‘unfortunately I came off worst and hit the wall’. Describing today as pretty good he said he ‘just needed to keep it going’ even if he wished he had a few more wins.
Starting on the front row alongside pole sitter Hebert, Cavalieri was happy to notch up his first win of the event having got by his team-mate on lap 5. He said he knew from the race before, when he started 10th, that his TC6.2 was strong over the opening laps and he said he went for it. With the car dropping off in the last minute of Round 6 he said he tried to open up as much of a lead as possible but with Randy Caster making a set-up change the 4-time electric offroad World Champion said it stayed really consistent for the race and now that ‘they have it figured out’ he was looking forward to trying to add a few more wins although starting his final race of the day from 7th behind Volker, Vejrak and Hagberg he might have to wait till tomorrow.
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