Volker looking unassailable at Reedy Race

Ronald Volker is looking unassailable at the 19th running of the Reedy Race of Champions after the Yokomo driver opened the final day’s action with a win ahead of defending champion Marc Rheinard.  Holding a 2-point overnight lead over Christopher Krapp, Volker claimed his 7th win in the 9th round of racing further extending his lead over the Tamiya driver who finished 2nd behind Race 1 winner Akio Sobue.  For Sobue his 3rd win puts him in the three way Tamiya mix for the other two podium placings.  Ending what started out as difficult day yesterday with a win, Meen Vejrak would carry his turn of fortunes through to this morning as he won Race 2 ahead of Rich Hohwart to close in on 5th placed Ryan Cavalieri.  Racing in the same race as Volker and Rheinard, the Associated driver started on pole and was running 3rd when his TC7 rolled to a stop, the Offroad star having mistakenly put the wrong, uncharged, battery in the car for the race.

With the Reedy Race trophy now within his grasp, Volker said, ‘that was an important result and it brings me closer to the championship’.  Starting alongside Cavalieri on the front row he continued, ‘I knew I had a chance to take the lead at the first corner so I just pulled the trigger.  It was very important to get by at the start and once I came out of the first corner slightly ahead and I was able make a gap.’  Extending his lead to over 3-seconds, the 2-time champion said this allowed him pace himself against his closest challenger Rheinard.

‘Happy Birthday, Easter and Christmas to Ronald with this year’s draw’, was the reaction of a clearly frustrated Rheinard.  He said with the Round 9 draw, the two great rivals going up against one another 8 times over the 12 races, there was ‘nothing (he) could do just drive around’ adding ‘it’s no fun like this’.  With Sobue closing to within a point with his latest win, the 5-time champion said his attention has now shifted to just making sure he even makes the podium this evening at Tamiya Raceway.

‘Super close now’ was Sobue’s reaction as he looked over the latest points standings, the 21-year-old adding ‘its going to be a very close battle with my team-mates’.   Finishing 6th overall last year, he said ‘I am aiming for my first podium finish now’. Starting his 9th race from pole, with fellow Japanese driver & reigning World Champion Naoto Matsukura alongside, the ETS podium finisher said it was an easy win.  Planning to make a set-up change to his TRF419 for Round 10, it is an overcast cool morning in California, he said his next race will not be as easy as he lines up on the third row alongside Volker.

Commenting on his race Krapp said, ‘I’m happy with 2nd from 8th (on the grid)’.  Running behind Matsukura, by the time he got by his TRF team-mate his other team-mate Sobue, ‘was too far ahead so (he) settled for second’.  Lining up in the next race with Rheinard starting ahead of him, Krapp said his focus now is to just keep finishing ahead of him to maintain his points advantage.

‘Hercules’ Vejrak was pleased to open the day with a win saying, ‘finally I start with better luck’.  The Thai ace described the track as ‘difficult to drive in the morning’ but added his Scorpion powered Yokomo was ‘really good’ it wasn’t too much of an issue.  A podium finisher last year he said he would ‘try for four wins today’ aiming to ‘repeat (his) podium’ finish but added his starts are not as good as yesterday when he ‘lost a lot of points as (his) luck was against him’.

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