Orlowski wins uneventful A2
After the drama of A1 at the ISTC Worlds in California, A2 was to be a very straight forward affair with Top Qualifier Michal Orlowski taking the win ahead of defending World Champion Bruno Coelho. The biggest moment of the race would be the bad start by the Awesomatix of A1 winner Marc Rheinard, the multiple World Champion getting off line and dropping down the order to 6th before eventually recovering to his P4 starting position. As Orlowski was again shadowed by Coelho, the Portuguese however not looking as racy this time round, Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker joined the mix at the front. Looking very competitive, unfortunately the 2016 World Champion would go wide coming off the end of the main straight drop off the lead battle. While Orlowski would have 1 or 2 bobbles he maintained station to win and set a showdown for the third & final A-Main here at Finishline RC Raceway in Bakersfield.
Clearly putting the A1 incident to the back of his mind, on A2 Orlowski said, ‘With the help of my team we fixed the broken chassis and that was the main thing that when I started driving I had confidence in what I was driving with. After such a big impact, not only with Bruno but also when I had the body tuck that broke some things on my car, from the first lap I had the confidence more than before and the car was awesome.’ The reigning 1:12 World Champion, a title fight that went to A3, he continued, ‘I could have a comfortable gap to Bruno which allowed me to have the gap to make a small mistake because with the driver presentation the racing line was super narrower than usual so went I went slightly wider I could hold onto the lead.’
Summing his his A2 race Coelho said, ‘It was a clean run. I tried to keep a little more away from Michal, I saw that he was doing some bobbles at the front. I was trying to save some points because the round before I didn’t have any good points for the win so I just tried to save 2nd position and don’t try to make any crazy move.’ Asked about his car for A2, he said, ‘that time I think it was very good, just he last minute it started to lose the rear, other cars seemed to struggled too, but I am positive for the last final.’
With Mugen coming here with their all new MTC3, it was great to see Volker back in the mix in A2. Asked about the race the German explained, ‘We made a car change which made it too safe for A1 so we went back to our quali set-up for A2 and it was spot.’ He continued, ‘but trying to close the gap to put them under pressure I got a bit wide at the end of the straight and that was basically it. I think it is still a four way game, I don’t have the best chances but anything can happen. The car was great so all I can do is go out and give it my best.’
