Rheinard wins A1 as Volker & Coelho tangle at TITC

Marc Rheinard has taken the win in the opening A-Main at the TITC, the Awesomatix handed the lead after Bruno Coelho made contact with Top Qualifier Ronald Volker as he challenged the Mugen driver’s lead.  With the Top 2 quickly pulling clear off the field, Rheinard’s passage to the front started when he capitalised on a mistake from a struggling Alexander Hagberg to go to third.  Starting third on the grid, Hagberg afterwards described his car as being ‘like driving on ice’ before contact from Naoto Matsukura put him out of the race with a broken car.  With Volker and Coelho still locked in battle at the front as the race passed the half way distance, Rheinard would be gifted the lead as Coelho ran into the rear of Volker after the chicane.  With enough of a gap to resume racing in the lead, unfortunately the impact had broken the anti tuck on Volker’s car and as the German tried to turn around having been spun his car flipped.  As Coelho waited on Volker, Rheinard went to the front where he would stay finishing 1.6 seconds ahead of the Infinity of Matsukura.  Battling their way back up through the order Volker would finished 3rd with Coelho right behind in 4th.

‘That’s what I needed’, was Rheinard’s reaction after A1.  He continued, ‘Hagberg’s car didn’t work good in A1 and it took a long time to get by him.  I finally passed him when he made a small mistake and I was able to get down his inside.  I had a clean track in front so I was trying to close the gap on the leaders but ended up having two rough laps and lost about 6/10ths.  Then I had to get back into my rhythm.  I didn’t see the lead crash but when I passed them I could see they where slow at getting moving again so once I was in the lead I drove slowly to the end.’  Asked if it was ‘game on’ for A2, the multiple World Champion said, ‘the car is better today so we’ll see what we can do.  Maybe the same thing can happen again.’

Asked his thoughts on the incident Volker replied, ‘It’s just a shit situation.  He hit me and broke the body tuck and the body caught the tyre.  It was absolutely unnecessary.’   He continued, ‘everything felt good and I felt confident we were pulling away from the rest.  Now we must find a better body tuck and fix the body.’

Coelho summed up the race by saying, ‘It was an intense final and I touched Volker after the chicane. It was a very close race but I was not expecting him to stop as much there.  Still it’s my fault and unfortunately he had a body tuck.’  Something that ruined both their races as the defending TITC Champion waited on a marshal to fix Volker’s body.  Looking to A2, Coelho said, ‘I will try to keep the pressure on him again but be careful in the slow corners.  The car is very good so I will try to bring home the win in the next final.’

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Video – Qualifying Round 4

Volker is TITC Top Qualifier

Having found himself lining up for the B-Main 12-months ago, Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker has bounced in style to become the Top Qualifier at the 20th edition of the legendary TITC in Thailand.  Opening Day 2 of qualifying in Bangkok with a TQ run after a mistake from defending Champion Bruno Coelho, Volker added a second TQ in the slower than expected fourth & final ‘Rocket Round’ on Saturday evening.  With the huge entry of drivers from around the world watching on in anticipation of a thrilling conclusion to qualifying from the top heat, the showdown between Coelho and Volker would all be over in a matter of seconds.  As Volker led out Q4, Coelho would make a false start going off at the same time as team-mate Alexander Hagberg.  Backing off the throttle after realising his error, getting back on the power he traction rolled his Xray in the first corner.  With the Portuguese driver who took both of yesterday’s qualifiers now out of contention for Q4, the pressure was still on Volker to TQ the round in order to deny his rival pole for tomorrow.  With Infinity driver Kouki Kato putting in an impressive run in the fourth fastest of the five Modified heat group, Volker couldn’t let up and in the end delivered a second TQ run followed by Kato with Hagberg third from the Awesomatix pairing of Marc Rheinard and Lucas Urbain.  That finishing order his how they line up on the grid behind Volker and Bruno with Kato, a C finalist on his TITC debut last year, completing the Top 6.

‘It is almost surreal to TQ after last year at this event’ was Volker reaction to giving Mugen their first TITC TQ.  He continued, ‘the conditions were very tricky as we could see from Bruno early on.  After he went out it still wasn’t any easier as my car was on two wheels a few times.  It was a difficult 5-minutes but I am delighted with the TQ.  Credit to Mugen and especially Robert (Pietsch) for the insane work they have done to get us to where we are now.’  Knowing how difficult an event the TITC is, an example being Coelho taking the TQ in 2018 but ending up P8 in the finals, Volker added, ‘nothing is done yet.  I’m on pole, but with Bruno behind me, so it won’t be a walk in the park.  It is the best possible position to be in so I’ll try to make the most of it.’

Asked about his start to Q4, Coelho said, ‘I had a false start.  And went the same time as Alex so I had to let him go.  I then knew the corner was going to be difficult and I flipped.  The run was done.’   The back to back World Champion continued, ‘we tried a car set-up change for the last one and while my run was done I just did some laps to get a feeling for the changes.  We tried something not to flip.  It was very fast but (the car) still wants to flip so we need to find a better solution for that’.  Asked if the track layout offers any overtaking opportunities, he said, ‘racing on asphalt is easier than carpet but the bumps here could cause problems if you try to overtake.  We have 3 finals so 3 chances and if the opportunity is there I will go for it.’

‘I thought it was a pretty good run’, was Hagberg’s reaction to his final qualifying attempt.  A two time winner of the race, he added, ‘I used my tyres from controlled practice which only had 4-laps on them and the balance was good’.  Preparing a brand new bodyshell after the run for his X4 saying, ‘It’s a back up just incase of a crash’, on his starting position for tomorrow’s finals the Swede said, ‘I start 3rd so anything is possible.  I will try my best to fight for the win.’

Rheinard was more upbeat about his finish to qualifying saying, ‘the car for the last one was fast, I just made too many mistakes.  I think I was leading at the beginning’.  The multiple World Champion said, ‘with the humidity today it’s difficult. I don’t have a feeling for the track but the car is not bad.  We made good progress that last round which is good for tomorrow.’  18-years since his one & only TITC win, the German feels ‘the race is wide open’ and he is confident he can run with the drivers lining up ahead of him in the A-Main.

‘It’s done.  I’m happy with that’, was Urbain’s thoughts on Q4.  He continued, ‘Q4 was horrible.  I am not sure if I overdid it with glue on the tyres.  Sometimes I had grip, sometimes I had understeer.  I couldn’t tell what the front end was doing.  I was just trying to stay on the black stuff.  It was super close and I lost out to Marc at the end but I think I prefer Marc in front of me than behind me.  More could have been possible but we reached our goal of making the A-Main.’  On tomorrow’s finals, this his first A-Main having made the B-Main on his TITC debut 8-years ago, he said, ‘It is already a challenge to keep the car on track for 5-minutes on your own so racing in a group is going to be something else.’

One of the stars of last year’s 1:8 Onroad World Championships in Japan, making the final on his category debut, Kato said the conditions for Q4 suited his IF14-2 and with a very stable car and he was able to push hard.  The Japanese Offroad Champion is confident for the finals with the 17-year-old feeling their is ‘more to come’ and he plans to move forward in the finals.

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Lauter takes TITC TQ for Awesomatix

Simon Lauter is the Top Qualifier in the Open Brushless class at the TITC, the European Pro Stock Champion putting his Awesomatix team in strong contention for four wins in a row of the Bangkok race’s biggest class.  With Lauter and Xray’s Adam Izsay taking one TQ a piece yesterday, it was Lauter who opened Day 2 with a TQ run in the 3rd round going 9/10ths of a second quicker than Izsay over the 5-minutes.  Still all to play for in the fourth & final round, with the conditions ideal for the fastest run of the weekend, Lauter was even stronger in Q4.  Setting the fastest lap of qualifying en-route to a third TQ run again ahead of his Hungarian rival, his advantage this time over 1.2-seconds.  With the two rival manufacturers battling out for the coveted class TQ honours behind an impressive performance from Awesomatix driver Thomas Bemmerl will see him start third tomorrow with Louis Kretschmer making it an all European Top 4.  Best of the rest Thailand’s Mongkolphan Lomrose will carry the hopes of a home win, the Open Brushless class having a tradition that the Champion can no longer contest the category.

‘I’m super happy.  The first step is done’,  was Lauter’s reaction to taking the TQ.  He added, ‘I am happy also as a team with how qualifying went.  Thomas (Bemmerl) was sensational getting Top 3 and Louis (Kretschmer) was also super good in the last one after bad luck in the previous two qualifiers’.  Pointing out tyres and tyre strategy was the main thing in qualifying, he is looking forward to the finals saying, ‘I think it will be quite a good race tomorrow.  It will be less about tyres strategy and more who can keep calm.  Adam is in super form so I think it will be quite a good showdown.’

Asked about his second day of qualifying Izsay replied, ‘Q3 & 4 were clean rounds and I was able to lead in both but small mistakes meant I was not close enough at the end for the TQ.’  The Snowbirds Champion continued, ‘I start second tomorrow and I will try to overtake Simon.’  Asked about overtaking on the tricky RC Addict track he said, ‘the challenge will be not to flip if you push.  In the finals thing are going to be harder because you are not going to be running on your own like in qualifier.’

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