Matsuzaki & Harper join Rheinard on World Championship podium

Hayato Matsuzaki and Elliot Harper have completed the podium here at the 2010 IFMAR World Championships, the two teenagers joining three time World Champion Marc Rheinard, who successfully defended his title with victory in the opening two legs.  With Rheinard sitting out the third leg, it was Tamiya team-mate Jilles Groskamp that took a well deserved win to bring the bi-annual event to a close.

Having looked like he could take the fight to Rheinard after the challenge of pre-event favourite Ronald Volker fell apart in qualifying, Groskamp’s luck ran out in the final qualifier and that bad luck continued through in to the opening two finals.  Despite winning an A-Main, poor results in the earlier races meant the European Champion leaves Burgdorf with a less than deserved 6th position, the Dutch ace having really looked strong in Practice and in 5 of the 6 qualifiers.

Finishing second and rewarding the huge efforts of Team Yokomo, Matsuzaki was the biggest surprise of the final. The Japanese Off Road star just made it into the final pipping former World Champion Andy Moore for the 10th spot.  Finishing 8th in Leg 1 after an incident with Groskamp, he produced a stunning drive in Leg 2 to finish second.  Not lacking confidence in his ability the 19-year-old said a repeat drive would be no problem and that is exactly what he produced to finish third, right on the bumper of team-mate Volker to become the Vice Champion. It was a very disappointing event for Volker, asked what had gone wrong the Warm-up Race Top Qualifier said the simple change of track direction left them struggling to get a car that wasn’t a handful to drive.

Despite messing up the third leg Harper, star of the 2008 Worlds, took the final step on the podium.  Tied on points with Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp who finished fourth in the final leg, the English TRF driver got third overall thanks to his faster run from the opening leg in which he took second.  Harper, who made the A-Main at the 1:12 Worlds earlier in the week, said he was so happy to make the podium, his personal goal being to just try and equal his fifth place finish from 2008.

Krapp was understandably very disappointed to have got so close to a podium finish on home soil.  Running the new Kyosho TF6,  he said that come tomorrow morning he will be very happy with the result but right now he feels hard done by after a clash with Harper on the first lap.  The car’s designer Shin Adachi was very proud of his young team-mate saying the German really rose to the occasion at his home event and has put himself on the map as a world class driver.

So what has been an extremely hot World Championship has successful come to an end with the MAC Burgdorf doing a great job at hosting the event.  We hope you enjoyed our coverage and thank our sponsors LRP, Speedpassion and Kyosho for making it possible.  Special thanks also to our good friend Scotty Ernst for bringing great excitement to the event as only he knows how.  The 2-year count down for all the teams to prepare for the sports biggest prize is already underway. We cant wait.

Final standings
1. Marc Rheinard (Tamiya TRF416) – 20pts
2. Hayato Matsuzaki (Yokomo BD5) – 17pts
3. Elliott Harper (Tamiya TRF416) – 15pts
4. Christopher Krapp (Kyosho TF6) – 15pts
5. Ronald Völker (Yokomo BD5) – 14pts
6. Jilles Groskamp (Tamiya TRF416) – 13pts
7. Yannic Pruemper (Yokomo BD5) – 13pts
8. Paul Lemieux (Xray T3) – 13pts
9. Alexander Hagberg (Xray T3) – 11pts
10.Viktor Wilck (Tamiya TRF416) – 9pts

Full results can be found here.

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Rheinard is World Champion

Marc Rheinard is the 2010 IFMAR Electric Touring Car World Champion successfully defending his title with another easy win in the second A-Main here in Burgdorf, Germany.  The 2004 & 2008 Champion led from start to finish to wrap up his third title as the chasing pack once again took each other out.

The German said while the win had come easy on the day, a lot of hard work had gone to prepare for the event.  Touring Cars most successful driver who has won all his three World titles driving for Tamiya said he wanted to thank all the Tamiya team in particular his team-mates and Speed Passion for their support.  Rheinard said he felt really bad for Jilles Groskamp saying the Dutch ace never has any luck.

With his challenge in Leg 1 ending on the opening lap, things did not get any better for Groskamp in Leg 2. On Lap 4 his Orion powered Tamiya got tagged by the Xray of Alexander Hagberg leading to an incident that Elliot Harper, Christopher Krapp and Ronald Volker would get caught up in.

Coming from last on the grid to finish second in Leg 2 Hayato Matsuzaki believes he can repeat the performance again. The former 2WD buggy World Champion said his factory Yokomo is working really well after he changed from an LTC-R to a Speed 6 shell.  The Japanese driver said his Nosram powered BD5 is now much easier to drive and Rheinard sitting out the last Leg of the final he feels he has a chance of winning, which would secure him 2nd on the podium.

Matsuzaki’s team-mate Yannic Pruemper is less confident he can repeat his third place finish saying he was very lucky.  Starting 9th on the grid, the newest recruit to the Yokomo team said his Speed Passion powered BD5 had very bad understeer and unless we have another crazy race he doesn’t have the pace for a podium finish.

Setting the fastest lap of the Leg, American Champion Paul Lemieux managed to fight his way back to fourth after he had to serve a Stop & Go penalty for hitting TRF’s Viktor Wilck.  The Xray driver said the penalty was deserved as he ran into the back of the Swede.

Second in the opening leg, Elliot Harper said he ‘almost made it through’ the carnage of the lap 4 incident.  The young British Tamiya driver just got tagged by Groskamp’s airborne car but the contact bent the front drive shaft on his Speed Passion powered TRF416 into the shape of a banana causing the car to understeer.  Holding on to finish fifth, Harper is confident he can still finish on the podium as he starts ahead of both Matsuzaki and Pruemper.  Mathematically 8 drivers can still finish runner up here with the unlucky Groskamp the only driver who cant do it.

Result A-Main Leg 2
1. Marc Rheinard (Tamiya TRF416) – 23/5:00.664
2. Hayato Matsuzaki (Yokomo BD5) – 23/5:02.529
3. Yannic Pruemper (Yokomo BD5) – 23/5:03.912
4. Paul Lemieux (Xray T3) – 23/5:04.120
5. Elliott Harper (Tamiya TRF416) – 23/5:05.357
6. Ronald Völker (Yokomo BD5) – 23/5:05.580
7. Christopher Krapp (Kyosho TF6) – 23/5:05.638
8. Jilles Groskamp (Tamiya TRF416) – 23/5:06.148
9. Viktor Wilck (Tamiya TRF416) – 23/5:09.893
10.Alexander Hagberg (Xray T3) – 23/5:10.704

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Video – A-main Leg 1

Rheinard cruises to easy Leg 1 victory

Marc Rheinard has moved one step closer to defending his World Championship title with an easy win in the first of the three A-Mains here in Germany.  The Top Qualifier led from start to finish to head home his young Tamiya team-mate Elliot Harper with Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp completing the Top 3.

Rheinard’s race was made all the more easier when fellow TRF driver Jilles Groskamp spun out in the second corner delaying the chasing pack.  The German said the race was easy ‘when the field crash behind you’ but said there was a serious lack of traction and feels this is partly due to the 24-minute gap between the B and A final.  IFMAR race director Frans Heinsbroek has taken onboard the drivers comments and has issued a new timetable for the remaining two Legs that reduces the gap to 14-minutes.  Chasing his third title in the only the 6th running of the ISTC World Championship, Rheinard just hopes the second Leg is as easy.

The star of the last World Championship in which he finished an excellent 5th overall, Harper was very happy with his run to second.  The British teenager, who started seventh on the grid with his Speed Passion powered Tamiya, he just kept the run clean and stayed out trouble and this paid dividends.

Staying just in front of Harper on the grid, Krapp was very happy with third.  The German found himself 9th after the first lap following contact but got lucky as others ahead of him made mistakes.  Competing in his first Worlds A-Main the very personable teenager said he was very nervous but with Leg 1 out of the way and a good result to his credit he said he should be more relaxed for the next encounter.

The man most expected to challenge Rheinard for the win was Groskamp but the Dutch driver had a terrible race.  Getting out of shape on lap one, he set about a recovery drive but on trying to pass Hayato Matsuzaki the Yokomo driver clashed with him.  Clearly very annoyed with the Japanese racer the TRF driver retired on lap 8 having just recorded the fastest lap of the race.  Afterward he said his Orion powered TRF416 was badly damaged and it was going to be hard to come back from this but he will give it his best shot.

Paul Lemieux looked strong in the opening leg but trying to chase down Rheinard he caught curb on lap 16.  Running in second spot the American was running faster laps than the Champion and in an attempt to further reduce the gap he tried to tighen up his lines but just after setting his fastest lap of the race he rolled over a curb but the car landed awkwardly and he crossed the track marker losing over 4.5 seconds as he tried to get back on the track. In the end he ended where he started, finishing in fifth position.

Lemieux’s Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg finished a very disappointing 6th. The Swede was very annoyed at getting a Stop & Go penalty after getting caught up in an incident between two other drivers.  Best of the Yokomo’s was Matsuzaki in 7th followed by team-mates Yannic Pruemper and pre-event favourite Ronald Völker.

Result A-Main Leg 1
1. Marc Rheinard (Tamiya TRF416) – 23/5:00.121
2. Elliott Harper (Tamiya TRF416) – 23/5:03.661
3. Christopher Krapp (Kyosho TF6) – 23/5:06.076
4. Viktor Wilck (Tamiya TRF416) – 23/5:07.421
5. Paul Lemieux (Xray T3) – 23/5:07.716
6. Alexander Hagberg (Xray T3) – 23/5:08.427
7. Hayato Matsuzaki (Yokomo BD5) – 23/5:11.285
8. Yannic Pruemper (Yokomo BD5) – 23/5:11.548
9. Ronald Völker (Yokomo BD5) – 23/5:11.837
10.Jilles Groskamp (Tamiya TRF416) – 7/1:42.230

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