Volker, Vejrak & Rheinard win opening RROC encounters

After a delayed start due to overnight rain,  the opening round of racing at this year’s Reedy Internatonal Touring Car Race of Champion resulted in pretty straight forward wins for defending champion Ronald Volker, Meen Vejrak and Marc Rheinard.  Starting from second on the grid alongside pole starter Ryan Cavalieri, Volker took a much expected convincing win in the opening race of the event followed by Serpent’s Viktor Wilck who started on the second row alongside another off road star, Ty Tessman.  In the second heat, it was 16-year-old Yokomo driver Andrew Hardman who led the way for the first five laps before being passed by team-mate Vejrak who had started from 10th on the grid.  Later in Hardman would lose 2nd to Tamiya’s Christopher Krapp as Vejrak cruised to victory up front. Concluding the first of the 12 rounds of heads up race, in Heat 3 four time Reedy Race champion Marc Rheinard, starting from 7th on the grid, took just three laps to get to the front to win ahead of team-mates Akio Sobue and Nicholas Lee.

Commenting on his winning start to the 18th running of the famous event, Volker was ‘glad to get a win from the front row’.  The German said he ‘got lucky at the start as Cavalieri ran wide’ allowing him to go through adding that his BD7 had a lack of grip for the first 3 to 4 laps.  As the tyres came in he was able to pull away and towards the end of the race was able to drive to save his tyres for Round 2, drivers having to run the same set of tyres twice in consecutive races to stop tyre strategy coming into play. With all three Round 1 winners grouped in the same heat for the second round, Volker said considering the line-up his aim from 7th on the grid is a Top 2 finish.

’10th to 1st is a good start’, that was how Vejrak summed up his race.  The former Nitro Touring Car World Champion said his BD7 was ‘perfect and easy to drive’.  Opening up a lead over Hardman he said he was able to slow down and save his tyres.  In Round 2 the Thai driver will start last of the Round 1 winners lining up 8th on the grid alongside Volker while Rheinard will be starting at the front.

In a race that saw early leader Charlie Phutiyotin suffering a questionable body tuck as Freddy Sudhoff passed him for the lead, the HB driver posting the fastest lap of the 3 heats, Rheinard said ‘after everyone had some issues in front it was easy after that’.  The 4-time world Champion said even though Volker is starting towards the back in the next one he expects that ‘Ronald is going to catch me’ and the race is going to take a little more effort the opening one.

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No surprises as Volker tops RROC practice

Day 1 of the Reedy International Touring Car Race of Champions threw up no real surprises as defending champion Ronald Volker set the pace over four rounds of practice at the Tamiya Raceway in California. With the Yokomo driver unable to better his P3 time, it was Viktor Wilck who made the most of the final round of practice improving from 10th to 2nd.  The Serpent driver would also reduce the gap to Volker to less than 3/10ths of a second, the smallest margin at which the German headed the time sheets over the opening day.  Christopher Krapp made it an all European Top 3, finishing the day ahead of team-mates Akio Sobue and Marc Rheinard, the latter the only one of the three to better his time in P4. While the times may have little bearing on the race’s unique format with 12 rounds of heads up racing getting underway in the morning, the big talking point at the end of the opening day is the narrow racing line. A track popular with racers because of its many overtaking opportunities, a particularly dirty offline has left some drivers concerned that overtaking could be limited.

With drivers given the chance to do a grid start during their final practice, Volker said it was interesting to run behind other cars and try to overtake them.  Describing it as ‘totally different to last year’, he said going offline to attempt a move led to the tyres to pick up a lot of dirt leaving the car loose for the next couple of corners.  Despite topping the times, the body language of the ETS Champion didn’t reflect satisfaction of that fact. Running behind Keven Hebert, he said while he was a little faster than the Canadian but any attempts to pass just resulted in his tyres picking up debris leaving him with no traction.  Hoping that the track is cleaner and has higher grip tomorrow, he said it needs this as it will make for ‘better competition’ over the next three days. One noticeable thing over the day was the amount of track surface that broke away with track staff gathering a rather big pile of debris as they blew off the track at the end of the day’s action.

Changing to softer front springs on his S411, the front and rear spring now the same, Wilck said this made the car a little more easy out of the corners. Describing the car overall as ‘easy to drive and good for racing’, the Swede thinks starting on the outside of the grid is going to be interesting because if you have to stay outside through the first corner then you could have problems due to it being ‘very dirty’ offline. While the track was cleared of the dirt at the end of the day, he hopes that they will also sugar water a much wider line in particular the first corner so as to give the opportunity to overtake.

‘All the team’s cars were good today and I am really happy with my car’, that was Krapp’s summary of his first ever day at the Tamiya track.  Changing to a steering knuckle made of a different plastic to the standard one for P4, he said this improved the TRF419 in the short corners.  However with the ‘racing line very narrow’, he was unable to improve on his time after the practice start.  Describing the track as ‘really dirty offline’, the multiple World Championship finalist said this was making it ‘hard to overtake’ but in terms of his car he was ready to go racing.

Feeling his Tamiya was better in P4, Sobue said that wasn’t reflected in his time as he made ‘many mistakes’ over the 5-minutes.  Looking forward to getting down to racing, the 20-year-old star of the ETS’ smallest track of the season, Mattsee, said for him it was a good day and he would leave his car unchanged for the first race.

Changing to a harder shock spring on his TRF419, Rheinard said the car was not as good as before.  Dropping from 4th to 5th, even though he picked up his 3-lap pace a little, he plans to go back to a softer spring for the opening race adding that with this ‘the car should be good enough for racing’.

Completing the top 6, Team Yokomo’s Meen Vejrak ran two cars. With one car fitted with short shocks and the other with the regular shocks, the shorter version gave more overall traction and this is what he would use for the opening race. While he didn’t improve on his earlier pace the Thai ace said, ‘the Reedy is not about being the fastest’.

Dropping one place to 7th, HB’s JJ Wang said changes to his PRO-5 ‘didn’t really work out’.  Despite this, the first time visitor to Tamiya Raceway said it had been a good day and he had made a lot of progress.  The fastest HB driver, Freddy Sudhoff 12th and Andy Moore 15th fastest in the 27 car field, he said the team would brainstorm tonight to see where they need to go with set-ups for tomorrow. Behind Wang, Ryan Cavalieri improved his time fractionally in P4 to end the day 8th with Associated team-mate Keven Hebert and young Japanese talent Naoki Akiyama completing the Top 10.

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Rivals close gap slightly to Volker in P3

While Ronald Volker continued to dominate the top of the time sheets on the opening day of the Reedy Race of Champions at Tamiya Raceway, on a quickening track the Yokomo driver’s rivals managed to reduce slightly the gap to the defending champion. With Volker improving his P2 pace by over 1.1-seconds, fellow German Chrstopher Krapp would shoot to second fastest at the end of P3, the newest Tamiya recruit getting to within less than half a second of the Yokomo ace. With Viktor Wilck, who was second fastest after P2, one of a number of drivers failing to improve on their times, Akio Sobue would move ahead of TRF team-mate Marc Rheinard to complete the Top 3.  Having broke cars in each of the opening two practices, World Champion Naoto Matsukura is classified 22nd of the 27 runners with one practice remaining but the Japanese driver is not concerned. Running two cars in P3, the Tamiya driver said the second car which had no transponder was very good and that the times are not reflective of his true pace.

Running two cars, one with old and the other with new tyres from controlled tyre provider Sweep, Volker said the balance of the car on old was good but the BD7 fitted with the new set felt edgy.  With drivers having to race new tyres and then that same set for the next race, the ETS champion said they needed to work on getting a set-up that is better balanced for new tyres.

‘Very happy’ with his improved pace Krapp said he was probably even closer to Volker’s pace as changing car in the run his second car, which had no transponder, felt faster. His first time to the track, he said while he still had a few overshoots he was starting to drive the track a lot better. Running new tyres on both cars he said the first two laps were very loose which was not good for the heads up racing and so for the final practice he will try a different tyre prep.

Going down in the rear diff oil and moving the front shocks in on the lower arm, Sobue said his Tamiya had better initial steering.  Second fastest to Volker in terms of outright fastest lap time, he said he wants to find more overall traction and so will make further tweaks to the set-up for the final practice.  Staying 4th fastest but improving his time by half a second, team-mate Rheinard said his TRF419 was ‘easy to drive but not crazy fast’.  ‘Consistent to drive’, the 4-time Reedy Race winner said ‘it isn’t about being fast, it’s about having a car that is easy to drive’ and he was happy with were he is at.

Setting the fifth fastest time, Meen Vejrak said ‘now my car is working’.  Having struggled with no rear traction in the opening two runs, the Thai driver said adding toe-in to the rear of his Yokomo was a big step forward but added they still have to further improve the set-up.

Another driver on his first visit to the Tamiya track, JJ Wang would make a big improvement in P3 to put his PRO-5 6th fastest.  The 17-year-old factory HB team driver said his first two packs were all about just learning the track.  With a good feel for the track for P3 he would run two cars for comparison with the stiffer car his preferred choice.  Having only run new tyres, for the final practice he plans to run both cars again but fitted with used tyres.

Improving to 7th, Keven Hebert said changes to his Associated TC6.2 were ‘pretty good’ but that the car was ‘now too stable’.  The Canadian plans to go back a little on the changes by taking out some of camber added to the rear.  Third fastest after P2, team-mate Rick Hohwart would drop to 11th as he failed to improve his early time.  While he managed to improve his brakes he said he needs to go more with the adjustment but with the track ‘so dirty’ offline that the tyres are done for the rest of the run he couldn’t pull off to make the adjustment over the 5-minutes.

Better known as one of the all time great electric offroad racers with 4 world titles to his credit, Ryan Cavalieri would set the 8th fastest time on his annual touring car outing.  The Associated star said his TC6.2, which is being set-up by Randy Caster, was ‘by far the best it’s been’ in P3.  Feeling he was ‘driving it a little too hard’ he said it was ‘super consistent’ and with the car better than last year he was upping his goal for the event.  Having set himself a Top 10 finish but ended up 11th last year he said he is confident he ‘can mix it up more this year’ and so has set himself a Top 7 result.

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