May 29, 2017

Volker & Wilck join Rheinard on Reedy Race podium

Outgoing champion Ronald Volker and Viktor Wilck joined newly crowned 6-time Reedy Race Champion Marc Rheinard on the podium at Tamiya Raceway as the 12th & final round of racing at the legendary event determined Volker won the battle for second overall.  With Rheinard putting the title to bed early with his 7th win of the weekend in the penultimate round of racing, the interest of the concluding three races was on the podium battle between Volker, Wilck and Nicholas Lee.  Running in the first heat Lee, a winner of 3-races, would finish second behind Naoki Akiyama, with him having to wait to see if that was enough for him to make the Top 3.  Next up it was Wilck’s turn to see what he could do, the Swede claiming a 3rd from 6th on the grid with Jan Ratheisky taking the win.  Getting to go last, running in the last of the weekends 36 races, Volker had the advantage of knowing what he needed to do and duly brought home a P2 behind Ryan Cavalieri to secure second overall.  For Wilck and Lee it would come down to the tie breaker with Wilck’s extra win giving him the final step on the podium.  With Lee fourth, Day 1 overnight leader Meen Vejrak would finish 5th ahead of Akio Sobue, Sobue’s result combined with team-mate Rheinard’s win claiming the title of Manufacturers Champion for event debutants Infinity.  Having completely forgotten about the Manufacturers title despite winning it for Tamiya last year, Rheinard said, ‘this is a crazy achievement. I didn’t even think about until they announced we had won.  It further shows we are on the right direction.  Even though Akio was super unlucky today we still managed to become Manufacturers Champions, it caps off an great weekend for the team’.

Commenting on finishing runner-up, Volker said, ‘I knew I needed a P4 to secure second overall and off the line everything went well.  I was chasing Cav but could attack as he was just too quick’, the World Champion adding, ‘he should do more touring car’.  A 3-time Reedy Race Champion, the Yokomo driver said, ‘P2 overall was the maximum I could get this time because we struggled for pace in a few runs.  Aside from Round 11 I did good runs but Marc was fast all the time and didn’t have back luck so he is deserved to win’.  With his team-mate Lee missing out on the podium, he said, ‘In my opinion Viktor got a bit too lucky to finish on the podium as the referee didn’t see a couple things like his Round 12 corner cut.  I’m sorry for Nicholas that he got P4’.  Summing up the 20th Reedy Race of Champions, this its best entry of the current decade, he said, ‘this is the best racing we have in the year and maybe it is time to change the format of other events.  The amount of action and fun we have here is amazing’.

Reacting to making the podium, Wilck said, ‘my thinking before the race was a Top 10 if all goes well.  We were actually surprised by the performance of the car here and it was fun racing for the title’.  The Serpent driver continued, ‘a couple of races I had issues with others and my own driving and without this for sure it could have been close with Marc.  He still would have won because he had perfect races and was also the fastest on the track. Still it was good to finish on the podium’.

With one of the 24 spots for the Invitational Reedy Race of Champions going to the winner of the supporting Open Modified Class, Jin Sawada booked his place on the 2017 entry with victory over Offroad World Champion Spencer Rivikin.  With Sawada taking the TQ, the Destiny driver won the opening A-Main but Rivkin took A2 to force the fight to A3.  While Rivkin would pressure the Japanese driver for the entire race he would hold on for the win much to the absolute delight of mentor Terutaka Hanaumi.  Joining him & Rivkin the podium would be Singapore driver Dominic Quek.

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