Rheinard wins A1 after Coelho-Orlowski contact

Awesomatix’s Marc Rheinard has taken the opening A-Main at the Electric Touring Car World Championship, the 3-time ISTC World Champion capitalising on contact between defending champion Bruno Coelho and Top Qualifier Michal Orlowski.  With the Top 2 initially pulling clear, as they scrapped over the lead Rheinard closed in to make way it a three way flight of RC titans, the closeness of the action generating plenty of ‘ooohs’ from the onlooking crowd.  Having got alongside leader Orlowski a number of times, Coelho would attempt a pass in the corner coming on to the main straight but contact was made with Orlowski ending up in the corner with a body tuck as Rheinard slipped through unscathed for a comfortable lead he will hold to the finish ahead Ronald Volker and Akio Sobue with Coelho finishing back in fourth.  Orlowski would finish P8, his car suffering damaged in the incident.

‘I couldn’t ask more’, was Rheinard reaction on taking A1.  The reigning European Champion said, ‘I knew something was going to happen up front so when I could get by Ronald I could see that my pace was actually really good.  I tried to show them I am there so they don’t have breathing room so I tried to get close to Bruno and then also backed off a bit cause I saw they were fighting, but still not too far away from him.  Then, actually I don’t know what happened, but they contacted and I went through and from this moment I tried to control it.’  On his car’s performance today, he said, ‘I made two small changes and it seems it works better now but maybe also the 1-hour break (no track action) made it better for us and definitely the heat’.

Asked about his race,  Coelho replied, ‘The car was I think finally very good.  I was able to keep up with Michal, I was trying to go all around like inside, outside, but over here I need to watch the reply, I don’t really know what happened, if is 100% my fault or not.  I think I touched him on the side and not really from the rear so for me I think he was a bit wide but as I said I need to watch the replay.  The result was looking very good but in the end it was a disaster.’

Asked for his reaction to the race Orlowski’s reaction was brief, ‘My chassis is broken now so that’s pretty much it.  We now need to fix it, that’s it’.

In Spec, there was no problems for Top Qualifier Simon Lauter, the Awesomatix driver easily pulling clear of the field to take a very comfortable win over the Xray of 5th place starter Matus Benetin.  Any early mistake from second place starter Max Mächler caused some the field issues on the main straight but the 1:12 Spec World Champion recovered to P3 helped by Benetin’s pass on Jan Ratheisky cause the German a body tuck that ended his challenge.

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Orlowski holds overnight TQ in California

Michal Orlowski holds the overnight TQ at the IFMAR ISTC World Championships in California, the Schumacher driver ending the second day of qualifying with a trio of TQ runs as defending World Champion Bruno Coelho continued to struggle with the difficult track conditions following his strong start in Q1 & 2.  With Coelho traction rolling as the penultimate qualifier came up to half distance and eventually finish 8th for the round, up front Orlowski found himself under pressure from Ronald Volker, the German’s new Mugen Seiki at the top the timing screens for 3-laps.  In the end however Orlowski took the round from the former World Champion by 7/10ths with a very impressive run from the previous heat netting the Serpent of former Nitro Touring Car World Champion Dominic Greiner third for the round.  Xray’s Alexander Hagberg recorded his 3rd consecutive run to the fourth fastest time.  Overall the day’s results sees Orlowski’s Hobbywing powered Mi9 at the top of the qualification ranking on 0 points, 3 from 6 to count.  Second on 5 points Coelho however has two TQ runs and more importantly the fastest time of qualifying meaning he still has a shot of going for his third consecutive Touring Car World title from pole position.  After his impressive day, Volker holds third with the 2016 title holder set to line-up in that position for tomorrow’s final at Finishline RC Raceway.

The slowest of his 3 TQ runs, on Q5 Orlowski said, ‘The track went a different way to what I thought.  I had an idea to change my car but my team stopped me from doing it.  The result was that my car was too easy to drive now but I could get around.  I had to use the curbs now to rotate the car in the corners which I did for most of the run but I went on two wheels two times going onto the straight, my body shell is black on the rear cause the car was almost upside down.  I’m extremely lucky to have been able to save it two times so I am glad to take another TQ.’  Ask about what could be the TQ decider should Coelho return to his morning form of today, Orlowski said, ‘Tomorrow depends how the conditions are so we need to have a good sleep, wake up in the morning and see what the track does.’

‘Today was a huge improvement we kept improving every run.  Usually if you are on the back foot and you try to improve it is not always possible but we made progress run by run and it is an amazing feeling to get close to Bruno and Michal.  Even the announcer was surprised I was in the lead.  Unfortunately it got too difficult to drive after 2-minute.  Even though it wasn’t far off a clean run cause I took much side bit and it was aggressive the performance of the car showed it is on top.  My goal this morning was to get P3 (on the grid) but I wasn’t sure that was possible but big thanks to [the car’s designer] Robert (Pietsch), he sees what the car’s doing and knows what to do and we end the day full of confidence’.  Being unable to afford to go to the 2004 Worlds so making his World’s debut in 2006 in Italy, he said he will now try to have a good sleep and see what tomorrow brings.  As a side story to Volker’s Worlds debut, Jurgen Lautenbach whose LRP brand has been a long time sponsor of the German driver reminded him of when at that race RC legend Masami Hirosaka asked who was that guy that passed him on the straight, when brushed and brushless ran together on the track.  Volker’s own recollection of Masami was standing next to the Japanese driver who pointed to the results sheet and thought he was Hupo Honigl to which Volker replied ‘no I am the other guy’.

Reacting to his Top 3 run, Greiner said, ‘I can feel the car now.  We improved the car, it was super difficult the whole day but now it is stable.  It’s too safe but at least now I can feel it and drive close and hard.  It can be faster a little bit but we are close now’.  Holding 8th overnight in the qualification ranking, asked if he planned any changes for tomorrow’s final qualifier the German said, ‘we will just make a little adjustment to make it safe and stay in the A-Main’.  His first EP Worlds, as the 2016 Nitro Touring Car World Champion, a multiple 1:8 Onroad World Finalist, lining-up in the A-Main here in Bakersfield would put the German in a very exclusive club that includes non other than RC legend Atsushi Hara.  With 2024 his first full season of racing electric, running Serpent’s upcoming new car release, on which ‘almost everything is new’ (click here to view Chassis Focus), he said the car is ‘for sure a lot better than the old one, we improve it a lot’.  Greiner highlighted having a team of just three cars here has made the experience more challenging and considering that he is super happy with his current position going into the final qualifier.

A somewhat dejected Coelho summed up the conclusion of Day 2 of qualifying with ‘A rough day’ adding ‘we hope for a better day tomorrow.’  The 31-year-old explained, ‘We are trying to work on the car to make it at least stay on the wheels tomorrow.  The traction went even higher today and our car was already on the limit to flip and now it is costing me a lot on that.  We need to find something for the higher grip.  We will reset tonight and try to think what to do for tomorrow and try to find some pace’.  Having TQ’d the first qualifier of this morning, Q2, asked if the morning conditions should favour his Hobbywing powered X4 he replied, ‘this morning the track was pretty fast as well so we will see but I hope so.’

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