Video – A-main Leg 1

Rheinard cruises to easy Leg 1 victory

Marc Rheinard has moved one step closer to defending his World Championship title with an easy win in the first of the three A-Mains here in Germany.  The Top Qualifier led from start to finish to head home his young Tamiya team-mate Elliot Harper with Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp completing the Top 3.

Rheinard’s race was made all the more easier when fellow TRF driver Jilles Groskamp spun out in the second corner delaying the chasing pack.  The German said the race was easy ‘when the field crash behind you’ but said there was a serious lack of traction and feels this is partly due to the 24-minute gap between the B and A final.  IFMAR race director Frans Heinsbroek has taken onboard the drivers comments and has issued a new timetable for the remaining two Legs that reduces the gap to 14-minutes.  Chasing his third title in the only the 6th running of the ISTC World Championship, Rheinard just hopes the second Leg is as easy.

The star of the last World Championship in which he finished an excellent 5th overall, Harper was very happy with his run to second.  The British teenager, who started seventh on the grid with his Speed Passion powered Tamiya, he just kept the run clean and stayed out trouble and this paid dividends.

Staying just in front of Harper on the grid, Krapp was very happy with third.  The German found himself 9th after the first lap following contact but got lucky as others ahead of him made mistakes.  Competing in his first Worlds A-Main the very personable teenager said he was very nervous but with Leg 1 out of the way and a good result to his credit he said he should be more relaxed for the next encounter.

The man most expected to challenge Rheinard for the win was Groskamp but the Dutch driver had a terrible race.  Getting out of shape on lap one, he set about a recovery drive but on trying to pass Hayato Matsuzaki the Yokomo driver clashed with him.  Clearly very annoyed with the Japanese racer the TRF driver retired on lap 8 having just recorded the fastest lap of the race.  Afterward he said his Orion powered TRF416 was badly damaged and it was going to be hard to come back from this but he will give it his best shot.

Paul Lemieux looked strong in the opening leg but trying to chase down Rheinard he caught curb on lap 16.  Running in second spot the American was running faster laps than the Champion and in an attempt to further reduce the gap he tried to tighen up his lines but just after setting his fastest lap of the race he rolled over a curb but the car landed awkwardly and he crossed the track marker losing over 4.5 seconds as he tried to get back on the track. In the end he ended where he started, finishing in fifth position.

Lemieux’s Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg finished a very disappointing 6th. The Swede was very annoyed at getting a Stop & Go penalty after getting caught up in an incident between two other drivers.  Best of the Yokomo’s was Matsuzaki in 7th followed by team-mates Yannic Pruemper and pre-event favourite Ronald Völker.

Result A-Main Leg 1
1. Marc Rheinard (Tamiya TRF416) – 23/5:00.121
2. Elliott Harper (Tamiya TRF416) – 23/5:03.661
3. Christopher Krapp (Kyosho TF6) – 23/5:06.076
4. Viktor Wilck (Tamiya TRF416) – 23/5:07.421
5. Paul Lemieux (Xray T3) – 23/5:07.716
6. Alexander Hagberg (Xray T3) – 23/5:08.427
7. Hayato Matsuzaki (Yokomo BD5) – 23/5:11.285
8. Yannic Pruemper (Yokomo BD5) – 23/5:11.548
9. Ronald Völker (Yokomo BD5) – 23/5:11.837
10.Jilles Groskamp (Tamiya TRF416) – 7/1:42.230

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Marc Rheinard is World Championship TQ

Two time electric Touring Car World Champion Marc Rheinard will defend his title from pole position tomorrow here in Burgdorf, Germany, after securing overall TQ honours from Tamiya Racing Factory team-mate Jilles Groskamp.  Going into the sixth & final round of qualifying this evening only Groskamp could deny the German the No.1 starting spot on the grid but the expected show-down never happened. On the opening lap the European Champion’s radio failed putting him out and leaving the Dutch ace clearly frustrated. The round was taken by Xray’s Alexander Hagberg who put in a blistering final run to record the only 25-lap run of the event.

Rheinard won his first World title from pole but said he normally likes to start from 2nd, the position from which he won his second crown. The only one of the four previous Touring Car World Champions to make the A-Main this year, he said he was pretty sure Groskamp was going to deny him the pole due to his pace on used tyres.  Expecting his main challenge to come from Yokomo’s Ronald Volker, who will only start from 8th, he believes his Dutch team-mate is now his main biggest challenge and has shown himself to be very good around the small technical track. Overall it was a good day for the Tamiya team as they got four drivers into the final with Viktor Wilck and Elliot Harper lining up 4th and 7th respective.

Hagberg was delighted with his final qualifier saying both his car and his driving are getting better with each outing.  Having come to Germany with the aim of making the A-Main, the factory Xray driver said starting from third exceeded that.  The Swede is now confident he can back up his starting position with a strong result in the final.  Joining Hagberg for Xray in the final is the top non-European driver Paul Lemieux who will start 5th.  The US Champion said he feels this is where he deserves to be on the grid and feels it’s going to be hard to finish higher than that in the races unless drivers ahead of him make mistakes.

Having won the D final on his World’s debut in Thailand 2 year ago, German teenager Christopher Krapp was almost lost for words at claiming sixth on the grid.  The factory Kyosho driver said he is delighted at how good his Orion powered TF6 car ran today and he is ‘Super Happy’ to be able to repay the support Kyosho have given him by getting their new car into the final.

Although they have three cars in the final the disappointment of the Yokomo team, who won the 1:12 title with a brand new car, was very clear to see.  Team leader Volker was tipped as the hot favourite for the win here but the talented German has set himelf a mammoth task for tomorrow’s race starting from eight in front of his team-mates Yannic Prumper and Hayato Matsuzaki.  Prumper is the only World Championship rookie in the final, the 16-year denying a number of the sports biggest names a chance at the 2010 title.

For Hot Bodies and Team Associated who came here with such high hopes the event has not gone to plan.  Hot Bodies who had three cars in the final in Thailand have no representation this year with all three of their team drivers in the B Final. 2006 World Champion Andy Moore has claimed the unenviable BQ honours missing out on the final for the first time since South Africa in 2002 while Atsushi Hara and Freddy Sudhoff could only manage 17th and 18th respectively in the final qualification ranking. Juho Levanen ended up best of the Associated runners and will be disappointed with 13th having shown early promise here with the new TC6.

Tomorrow’s schedule will start with a round of practice final followed by triple Mains for all competitors.

Final Top 10 Qualifiers
1. Marc Rheinard (Tamiya TRF416) – 463pts
2. Jilles Groskamp (Tamiya TRF416) – 462
3. Alexander Hagberg (Xray T3) – 460
4. Viktor Wilck (Tamiya TRF416) – 456
5. Paul Lemieux (Xray T3) – 456
6. Krapp Christopher (Kyosho TF6) – 454
7. Elliott Harper (Tamiya TRF416) – 452
8. Ronald Völker (Yokomo BD5) – 449
9. Yannic Pruemper (Yokomo BD5) – 447
10.Hayato Matsuzaki (Yokomo BD5) – 445

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Another TQ run for Groskamp

Jilles Groskamp has claimed his second TQ run of the day with the Tamiya driver setting the fastest five-minute run of the day in the penultimate round of qualifying here in Burgdorf.  The Dutch ace was on target for the first 25 laps of the World Championship but made a mistake mid way through the run but still ended up fastest from his team mate Elliot Harper with a 24 lap run in 5:02.072.

Running new tyres Groskamp described his car as ‘absolutely amazing’ saying it was super easy to drive.  Needing to TQ the round in order to keep the battle with team-mate Marc Rheinard for overall TQ honours, the Orion backed driver said he was very pleased’ with his run despite the his off.  Needing a top 2 finish in the final round he is very confident about his chances having proven earlier in the day he is very quick on used tyres.  Will all the leading drivers, with the exception of Hayato Matsuzaki, believed to have already used up their allocation of three new sets of tyres the final qualifier should prove a more even playing field.

Having made mistakes in each of his earlier outings Harper said he managed to stay out of trouble to record his best run.  Also running a fresh set of tyres, the British teenager said he had to push really hard over the last three laps to keep ahead of Xray’s Paul Lemieux but the extra effort paid off as he beat the American by 16/100ths.

Having missed out on the A-Main last time round in Thailand US Champion Lemieux secured his place in the final by setting the third fastest time in Q5. Running a very thin prototype chassis on his T3, he said the car was tweaked which made it feel very loose on left turns.

The big surprise of the penultimate round of heats was French driver Lucas Urbain.  A finalist at the European Championships last year he took the fourth fastest time at the controls of a Losi JSX-R. Having created a new upper deck for the car his regular batteries were not approved for the Worlds.  Due to the size of the batteries he could use he had to revert back to the original kit top deck. For Q4 Urbain, who is making his Worlds debut, managed to source new approved batteries allowing him to refit his self designed top deck. With fresh rubber for Q5 and a change of additive he produced a stunning run raising a few eyebrows around the paddock.

Top Yokomo once again was Hayato Matsuzaki the Japanese ace clocking the fifth fastest time. Team-mate and Q3 top qualifier Ronald Volker failed to capitalise on his final set of fresh rubber as he struggled with the set-up on his BD5.  Completing the Top 6 and leading the Team Associated challenge was Finland’s Juho Levanen.

Top 10 Qualifying times for Round 5
1. Jilles Groskamp (Tamiya TRF416) – 24/5:02.072
2. Elliot Harper (Tamiya TRF416) – 24/5:03.285
3. Paul Lemieux (Xray T3) – 24/5:03.513
4. Lucas Urbain (Losi JSX-R) – 24/5:03.854
5. Hayato Matsuzaki (Yokomo BD5) – 24/5:03.927
6. Juho Levanen (Team Associated TC6) – 24/5:04.087
7. Alexander Hagberg (Xray T3) – 24/5:04.183
8. Marc Fischer (Corally Prototype) – 24/5:06.733
9. Andy Moore (Hot Bodies TCX) – 24/5:07.168
10.Cristopher Krapp (Kyosho TF6) – 24/5:07.183

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