Defending Champion wins Leg 1
Marc Rheinard has opened his European title defence in the best way possible by winning the opening Leg of the A Main from fourth on the grid. The factory Tamiya driver made a blistering start moving into second at the first corner behind Top Qualifier Jilles Groskamp. Later in the lap the German was handed the lead when teammate Groskamp spun 360 degrees due to bad set of tyres and once in front the World Champion cruised to the win followed home by Hupo Honigl. Afterwards Rheinard said his TRF416WE was better than yesterday but put it down to a good set tyres something his Speedpassion teammates Groskamp & Wilck didn’t have on this occasion.
‘Super lucky’ was how Honigl summed up his race. The Austrian held off intense pressure from Groskamp and Volker to finish second which he said was much more than he expected. Ronald Volker said third was an OK result considering his costly mistake which required a marshal to put his Yokomo BD5 back on track. The German said he made a careful start but when he got up into second spot he took too many risks to try catch the man who denied him the title last year and that resulted in his off. Finishing fourth Viktor Wilck was another to suffer tyre wows with a bad rear tyre causing him to do donuts during the race.
For Top Qualifier Groskamp the race was a very frustrating one. Over the opening laps the Dutch racer had a very loose car and afterwards commented, ‘Its not fare. What can I do, the tyres are a lottery’. Adding to his frustration he caught a curb at the Laguna Seca style chicane on the last lap and beached his car on the grass just in front of the loop dropping him from fourth to eight by the time marshal Andy Moore got to the car.
Finishing fifth Kyosho/Team Orion team driver Christopher Krapp got his chances of becoming Junior European Champion off to a good start heading home fellow German Yannic Pruemper. Yesterday it looked as though 15-year-old Tamiya Junior driver Pruemper had the crown sown up as the only classified Junior in the A-Main but this was due to an administration error which 16-year-old Krapp brought to the attention of EFRA this morning. So the A Main will now decided two European titles later today.
Just after the first round of finals the heavens opened up in Luxembourg meaning it is very likely the second Leg is going to be a wet affair. Currently the second leg of the finals have been declared wet races by race officials but the rain has stopped.
Leg 1 results
1. Rheinard Marc – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 17 laps in 05:07.425
2. Hönigl Hubert – Tamiya/LRP – 17 laps in 05:10.872
3. Völker Ronald – Yokomo/LRP – 17 laps in 05:10.981
4. Wilck Viktor – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 17 laps in 05:11.678
5. Krapp Christopher – Kyosho/Orion – 17 laps in 05:13.143
6. Prümper Yannic – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 17 laps in 05:14.686
7. Urbain Lucas – Losi/GM Racing – 17 laps in 05:14.747
8. Groskamp Jilles – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 17 laps in 05:15.413
9. Graversen Steen – Kyosho/Orion – 16 laps in 05:03.641
10. Hagberg Alexander – Xray/LRP – 16 laps in 05:08.926
Full results from the event can be found here.
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