Volker opens final day of RROC with win to move ahead of Wilck

Of the key podium contenders at this year’s Reedy Race of Champions it was Ronald Volker who was the only one to register a win, the defending Champion winning Heat 3 of Round 9 ahead of Viktor Wilck to move ahead of the Serpent driver in the standings.   Third in the overnight ranking, Volker would get the jump on pole sitter Juho Levanen and despite a spin in the kink would go on to takes his 3rd win of the event.  While Volker was out front, all the attention was on the battle behind between Levanen and Wilck following their clash in yesterday’s closing round.  In the end a mistake from Levanen would let Wilck through to second although the Serpent driver would have to see off a strong challenge from Infinity’s Akio Sobue.  For overnight points leader Marc Rheinard, he would open his Day with a 3rd from 7th on the grid after an attempt to take the lead from Ralph Burch resulted in contact forcing the Infinity driver to wait.  Looking very much on target for a sixth Reedy Race title bar a complete disaster, Rheinard would recover from dropping to last to finish 3rd and maintain his Top 3 finishing record.  Up front Viljami Kutvonen backed up his first win from yesterday evening with another Awesomatix win while Nicholas Lee was another repeat winner in the round.

Commenting on his latest win, Volker said, ‘I was trying to holeshot the start and right away felt I had it.  After that I tried to pull away and could get a gap over the first few laps’.  The World Champion continued, ‘My car started to get loose over the run and I spun in the kink without attacking so that’s something we need to change for the next one.  I start that 1st on the grid and want to try maintain that position for the race’.  On the latest points standings he said, ‘I’m 2nd now but for the win I am not expecting to challenge Marc, his car is on pace and he has two front row starts so I don’t expect him to fail but having said that we have seen before that anything can happen’.

‘I wasn’t going to get into the same shit as yesterday with Juho so I backed off’, said Wilck after the race.  With a clash with the Finn effectively ending his challenge for a second Reedy Race title, he continued, ‘I waited behind him and he made a mistake so I could get by but Ronald was already cruising so I couldn’t catch him’.  With Sobue on his back bumper he added, ‘It was a good fight with Akio, he is really fast’.

Summing up his 9th of the 12 races that will decide the winner of the 20th running of the Reedy Race of Champions for Touring Cars, Rheinard said, ‘Yeh it wasn’t bad at least for the points’.  The Infinity driver, this the first year the Japanese touring car newcomer has been represented at the event, continued, ‘It could have been more but I hit Burch, I wasn’t forcing the pass it just happened but it was a good comeback.  Now 2-times I have the TQ so I’ll try to take advantage of that’.

View our event image gallery here.

Win No.5 puts Rheinard within reach of 6th Reedy Race title

Marc Rheinard is within reach of a sixth Reedy Race title after the Infinity driver wrapped up Day 2 with a 5th win at the 20th running of the event.  The new overnight leader going into the final day at Tamiya Raceway, his title hopes boosted further in the final round as main challenger Viktor Wilck’s day came to a crashing finish, the Serpent driver running in to the rear of heat leader Juho Levanen.  Leaving the Swede who took three wins earlier in the day with a fifth for the round, it also handed Ronald Volker a win that puts the reigning champion in contention for a podium as he moves up to third in the points ranking with 8 of the 12 races completed.  A bad round for Day 1 leader Meen Vejrak, the Yokomo driver’s chances of a podium took a major hit as he ended the day with a 7th dropping to sixth in the standings.  While not a contender for overall honours, Awesomatix Viljami Kutvonen would be the third winner of Round 8, the Finn become the 11th of the 24 invite drivers to register a win.

Leading by a massive 6-points with four races remaining, a very happy Rheinard said, ‘What can I say, again it as a good start for me as something happened again at the front’.  Starting from 6th on the grid, the 4-time Onroad World Champion would battle for the win against 4-time Offroad World champion Ryan Cavalieri, the Associated driver having started on pole.  With the American Running slightly wide in the sweeper this was all Rheinard needed to make a pass that would earn him his 2nd win of the day.  Commenting on the pass, he said, ‘I knew Cav was fast so I didn’t want to do anything stupid to try pass him.  I knew to finish 2nd would be OK as Viktor crashed in the race before but then he went a little wide and I got him on the inside’. Asked about his lead going into tomorrow, he replied, ‘For sure the chances are good for me now so I will try to drive smart.  Sometimes 3rd will be enough so I will use my brain tomorrow’.

A clearly annoyed Wilck reacted to his incident with Levanen by saying, ‘I don’t know why this guy is here. He pretty much f#@k my race and basically decided who the winner is’.  The 2012 Champion continued, ‘He tapped my back at the start.  Then I was just waiting behind. He was backing off for 4-minutes and then he slammed the brakes’.  Giving his view of the incident, Levanen said, ‘I was just driving defensive and got taken out’.  The Finn added, ‘he messed up his own race, 2 points would have been a lot better than 5 points. Why risk it’.

Now on the same points as  Wilck but with half the number of wins, Volker said, ‘at least now we have a chance for a podium’. On his second win, the World Champion said, ‘we changed a lot on the set-up and at least now I had the steering I want but I had to fight the rear the whole race, I lost it a few times’.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘the last three laps we were so close together and until the last lap I had not planned any attacks but to wait and see what happens. Then Juho and Viktor crashed and  I could take the win.  We struggled today with the car but I have decent starting grids tomorrow so we can try to finish somewhere on the podium’.  Behind Volker, his normal touring car arch rival Bruno Coelho sits fourth one point back going into the final day of his Reedy Race debut.  While he had one DNF, the Xray driver has never been outside the Top 3 in the the other 7 races so a podium is still possible for the ETS Champion.

View our event image gallery here.

Wilck closes on Rheinard with 4th win

Day 2 of the Reedy Race of Champions is proving to be Viktor Wilck’s day with the Serpent driver posting his third win of the day to join Marc Rheinard and Meen Vejrak as the only drivers with 4 wins on the board. The Swede’s latest win was a significant one as Rheinard and defending champion Ronald Volker all line-up in the same race.  With a mistake from pole sitter Freddy Sudhoff handing the No.2 starting Wilck the lead, the former Champion would stay there to the end to win ahead of Rheinard and reduce the German’s lead down to two points.  Another important win of the round was that of overnight points leader Vejrak who now sits third a further 2 points behind Wilck.  The third winner of Round 7 of 12 was Bruno Coelho, the Reedy Race rookie registering his first win of the event.

Reacting to his hat trick of wins, Wilck said, ‘I just drove without mistakes when I saw Marc was coming. If Marc won this one he would pretty much have it (the title)’. The World Championship podium finisher added, ‘I got lucky at the beginning when Sudhoff spun out and then had a clean road ahead of me. It was a good race and all 3 of us pushed maximum’. Set to finish off the day with another front row start when asked if it was now game on he replied, ‘I’m just going to try to get more cleans runs and see what happens’.

Starting from the back on the grid, Rheinard said, ‘for 8th this heat, 2nd was pretty good’.  Last winning the Reedy Race in 2015, the Infinity driver continued, ‘I felt I would be able to real in Viktor but I had understeer to the left, this set of tyres not 100% but otherwise it was a good heat for me.  Sure Viktor is 1 point closer to me but from 8th I’m happy’. Rheinard will end Day 2 starting Round 8 from 6th on the grid with Ryan Cavalieri, a winner yesterday and Coelho occupying the front row.

‘I had to make sure I took advantage of my front row start’ was how Vejrak summed up his win from pole. The Yokomo driver didn’t however have an easy time of the race with overheating tyres an issue.  The former podium finisher said, ‘It was better than this morning because I have steering but I made a safe drive’.  He continued, ‘the feeling is strange and after a few laps the grip goes completely.  It looks like I overheat the tyres.  When Naoto caught me I was having to go slow to cool the tyres but then could pull away again’.

‘Finally’ was Coelho’s reaction to his first win. The Xray driver continued, ‘so many times I was in 1st position but through my own fault or super bad luck I couldn’t stay there’.  His first Reedy Race experience, the ETS Champion said, ‘For sure it is not going well for us. It’s our first year so we have no experience of the track and no base set-up for here. We are still working on it but the problem is I’ve no steering so its quite difficult’.

View our event image gallery here.