Rheinard DNFs Round 3 as Vejrak & Sobue add 2nd wins
Having had the perfect morning at the Reedy Race of Champions, Marc Rheinard’s fortune’s changed in Round 3 as Tamiya Raceway’s infamous kink put an end to the German’s race after just 4-laps. Running in Heat 3, Rheinard lined up 5th for the start with Infinity team-mate Thomas Pumpler on pole. With the field bunching up behind Pumpler making it anyone’s race, it was Round 1 & 2 race winner Rheinard who was to be the first fall out of the high speed train. On the landing from his contact with the kink curbing he would break a mounting screw on his car’s ARS, the race done for the 5-time Champion. Explaining his off, Rheinard said, ‘I was just being patient but then had one shitty lap and it left the car loose. Then I hit the kerb in the kink and the ARS screw broke’. With Pumpler managing to hold on to his lead for a number of laps his race would also come undone in the kink as the Austrian got out of shape and collected second place Juho Levanen. This allowed Bruno Coelho and Viktor Wilck, the back row starters, to go to the front and battle for the win but the kink wasn’t done yet, with it tripping up Coelho for the second time in three races. While Coelho would hang onto his Xray he went wide which was enough for Wilck’s Serpent to slip through to register his first win of the 2oth running of the Reedy Race.
The two encounters would see pole sitters Meen Vejrak and Akio Sobue, points leader after three rounds, take rather straight forward wins but the first encounter wasn’t with out its dramas. With Meen pulling clear up front, it was the battle for second that provided the entertainment with reigning champion Ronald Volker trying to make a similar last lap pass as he successfully did in Round 1. Looking like he had snatched second from the Awesomatix of Freddy Sudhoff on the exit of the final corner there would be contact. Reversing the order as Sudhoff would cross the line in second, Volker clearly wasn’t happy no action was taken for the incident.
Commenting afterwards, Volker said, ‘I have totally no luck today. I was after getting by JJ (Wang) for second but off the racing line there is no grip so I had dirty tyres for a few laps. This allowed Freddy to go by. I made a move on him then on the last lap and went ahead of him at the exit but then I got hit by him in the rear’. The World Champion continued, ‘ I’m not blaming Freddy for hitting me but they should have given me P2. Having the second referee from the invite drivers didn’t help and that’s something I can’t understand’. New for this year’s event, race referee Fred Medel is joined by one of the 24 invite class drivers for a second opinion on any race incidents which in the case of Heat 3 was Coelho.
Summing up his second win, which puts him second in the points behind Sobue and ahead of Coelho, Vejrak said, ‘now the conditions are not easy. I changed my car to get more overall traction but it wasn’t any better. Many cars are on the limit now. Something is different to yesterday. Maybe now it because its hot and windy’. Aiming to try to make his car more stable for the days final round which he starts again from pole, the Thai driver said, ‘2 wins from 3 races is not a bad start and I hope I can end the day with another good result’.
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