Matsukura cruises to victory in opening A-Main
Defending 1:12 World Champion Naoto Matsukura made it look easy as he cruised to a very convincing victory in the first leg of the A-Mains here in Burgdorf. The Top Qualifier led from start to finish winning by almost 5 seconds from Marc Rheinard to move a step closer to retaining the title he won 2-years in Bangkok, Thailand. The young Japanese ace made the race look like a formality but afterwards admitted he was very nervous for the opening part of the race finding it hard to run a tight line, but as he opened up a gap over the chasing pack he was able to relax and get into his regular rhythm.
Rheinard was the only driver who looked like he might be able to take the chase to Matsukura but that quickly faded as he fell 3.7 adrift by the mid way point. The German, who will defend his Touring Car World title later this week, said a lack of traction meant he was unable to do anything about the pace of the 16-year-old, something he is putting down to a bad set of tyres.
One man who really should buy a lottery ticket this evening is American Paul Lemieux. Having just scraped into the final this morning, the RC America driver took his Xray from 10th on the grid to 3rd by the end of the 8 minutes. Battling hard with his fellow countryman Josh Cyrul for the position, Lemieux got third as Cyrul crashed, with 30 seconds to go, into the foot of a marshal who was recovering Ronald Volker’s dead car which had come to a halt on the racing line. Speaking about the incident Cyrul said this was typical luck for him. Recovering, the US Champion eventually crossed the line in 5th position behind the Corally of Finland’s Simo Ahoniemi and ahead of Elliot Harper.
The first big casualty of the race was CRC’s Jilles Groskamp. The Dutch driver was running third but pushed too hard in an attempt keep pace with the top 2. Hitting a board he broke a rear wheel bringing his race to an end after just 3 laps. With Groskamp gone Volker held the third spot but 2 laps from home his race came to a sudden stop after the end bell came off his motor after fairly light contact with the boards leaving him with no drive.
A-main leg 1 results
1. Matsukura Naoto – 36 8:04.210
2. Rheinard Marc – 36 8:09.113
3. Lemieux Paul – 35 8:00.051
4. Ahoniemi Simo – 35 8:00.817
5. Cyrul Josh – 35 8:03.458
6. Harper Elliot – 35 8:05.755
7. Hebert Keven – 35 8:08.410
8. Völker Ronald – 33 7:29.016
9. Fischer Marc – 22 5:06.816
10.Groskamp Jilles – 1 0:19.528
Full results can be found here.
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