Error brings Rheinard’s quest to an end
Marc Rheinard’s quest for a third consecutive World title is over after the German, who sat out the opening A-Main to save tyres, rolled his Tamiya on the first run through the chicane dropping him to the tail of the field from where he could only recover to finish 6th. With Rheinard, the clear favourite to take the win for the Leg due to having fresh tyres, out of contention it was Ronald Volker who took the win ahead of Yokomo team-mate Naoto Matsukura with Viktor Wilck again finishing 3rd.
With his car ending up on its roof on the exit of the chicane Rheinard, whose 4-year reign will come to an end shortly after 5pm local time, said the roll was his ‘own fault’ as he steered too early in the middle of the chicane, the curb sending the car up on two wheels. Rheinard, who has held the World title three times, said while the race was over for him there was still plenty to play for in the final leg as his Tamiya Racing Factory team still had ‘two horses’ in the race. Those being Leg 1 winner Jilles Groskamp and Wilck.
After the disappointment of Leg 1, when contact with Hara ended his chances of a win, Volker drove a very patient second A-Main. Having more pace than Top Qualifier Hara, the ETS Champion said this bunched up the pack but he knew he needed to make a clean pass on the Team HB driver. Aware that Rheinard’s challenge was over he said he was conscious of his own team-mate Matsukura, who also started the race with fresh tyres, and as the 1:12 World Champion joined the lead battle he knew had to get out front. Once out front he said he knew if he could hold off Matsukura for a few laps then the 18-year-old’s tyre advantage would drop off and on equal tyres he knew he could keep him at bay which is what he did til the end to win by half a second with Wilck a distant third almost 4 seconds adrift.
Hara said he ran too soft a set-up for the race and after a coming together with the recovering Rheinard he was pleased to to take fourth for the Leg. Planning to go back to a set-up he ran yesterday in qualifying for the final Leg the former Touring Car and 1:8 Offroad World Champion is expecting a ‘really big fight’ with five drivers still in with a chance of being crowned the Electric Touring Car World Champion, he being the only previous holder of the title.
The clear favourite of the large crowd of onlookers who have turned out at the MACH, Groskamp saw his challenge for a top result grabbed from him in the exact same spot as team-mate Wilck lost his challenge for the win in Leg 1. Through the Omega sweeper the Dutch driver ran a tight line over the curb only to also get pulled into the grass on lap 8 resulting in his TRF417 needing to be marshaled. Pulling up on the next lap the former European Champion is confident about his chances in the final Leg as he has shown throughout the event his car is very good on used tyres.
Leg 2 A-Main Result
1.(2) Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 18/5:01.535
2.(6) Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo/Nosram – 18/5:02.110
3.(5) Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Thunder Power – 18/5:05.392
4.(1) Atsushi Hara (JP) – HB/Reedy – 18/5:07.988
5.(10)Chris Grainger (GB) – Schumacher/GM – 18/5:10.005
6.(4) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/Speedpassion – 18/5:10.923
7.(7) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho/Orion – 18/5:13.597
8.(8) Loïc Jasmin (FR) – Yokomo/LRP – 18/5:13.872
9.(9) Andy Moore (GB) – HB/Hobbywing – 14/3:57.640
10.(3)Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Tamiya/Orion – 9/2:31.004
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