Chassis – Yokomo BD7 2015
Motor – LRP 4.5
ESC – LRP
Batteries – LRP 5600mah
Tires – Sweep (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – Yokomo ace Ronald Volker is running a pretty out-of-the-box version of the BD7 2015 as usual beautifully prepped by Yokomo’s engineer Yukijiro Umino. The only changes featured are a titanium screw set and a different weight distribution to match the rules of the Reedy Race.
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Marc Rheinard has one hand on the Reedy International Race of Champions trophy with just one round of racing between him and a record 5th title. The penultimate round of racing at the famous event netted the Tamiya driver his 7th win of the weekend allowing him to extend his lead to 3-points over defending Champion Ronald Volker. A rough eleventh round for Volker, the Yokomo driver could only manage third behind team-mate Meen Vejrak and HB’s JJ Wang who notched up his second win of the event. With both drivers lining up in the same heat for Round 12, which is the concluding race of the 18th running of the unique annual event, the advantage lies with Rheinard. In order for Volker to stand any chance of retaining his title he must take the win as well as having Rheinard finish 6th or lower.
Starting his race from 6th on the grid, Rheinard quickly worked his way up to second behind Andy Moore and as the race reached the half way mark found his way passed HB’s former World Champion to take a win that all but secures him his 3rd title at the famous track that is owned by his long time Japanese sponsor Tamiya. Starting Round 12 from the back of the 9 car field with Volker lining up 4th, the 4-time World Champion said he would be taking a very ‘calculated approach’ to the race.
Also starting his race from mid pack, Volker said twice he got pushed out on the dirt as a result of other’s pile ups, dropping him back down the order. Although he ‘had a great car’, highlighted by his fastest lap of the round, he said he could only recover to third. Finding it ‘still hard to accept the disadvantage (he) had compared to Marc in terms of the number of front row starts’, he said while ‘not impossible’ the task facing him is going to be hard since he will be starting from the mid pack once again. Considering the ‘tougher starting spots’ he was drawn for the 12 races, the 2-time Champion said overall he couldn’t but be happy with locking in a 2nd place finish so far. Asked what approach he would take for the last race he said ‘it’s difficult to pass but I just have to go for the win and after that what happens happens.’
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Chassis – Awesomatix A700 Evo2
Motor – Trinity 5.0
ESC – LRP
Batteries – Trinity 7150mah
Tires – Sweep (handout)
Radio/Servo – Ko Propo
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – American onroad racing veteran Josh Cyrul is running is contesting the Reedy Race of Champions with the latest version of Awesomatix’s A700. The Evo2 is pretty standard, only fitted with the optional top deck and titanium turnbuckles.
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Round 10 of racing at the Reedy International Touring Race of Champion produced an important win for defending champion Ronald Volker. Having moved into title contention with a win a round earlier Christopher Krapp would crash out of contention with a heavy off in through Tamiya Raceway’s famous kink. Winning ahead of points leader Marc Rheinard, Volker’s fifth win leaves the Yokomo driver just one point off his rival with just two more rounds of racing left to decide who will be champion of the 18th running of the late Mike Reedy conceived heads-up racing event. In the other two races of the round, Singapore’s Nicolas Lee and factory HB driver Freddy Sudhoff secured their first race wins.
Starting from his only P1 grid position, highlighting the fact Rheinard has had 3 starts from pole, Volker said with Rheinard starting directly behind him from P3 this was an ‘essential win’ to keep the hopes of retaining his title alive. He said as it was the first time he had a clean track ahead of him at the start even though he was on used tyres with the cool conditions he went 100% for a fastest possible race time saying he was covering all angles in case things came down to a tie break. Pulling away from Rheinard, he would beat the 4-time champion’s best race time by a massive 10 seconds. With Krapp’s retirement from his race, he said that a Top 2 was 95% secured ‘anything else is now a bonus what ever happens’.
Finishing over 6-seconds back from Volker, Rheinard said he thought he could challenge for the lead but ‘for some reason (his) car was not as good as before’. Eventually settling for 2nd he said it was still ‘good points’ and he still has one more win, but admitted the result puts the chances of the overall win more on Volker’s side.
Krapp said ‘unfortunately I hit the kink which was super stupid’. Hitting the boards while battling with Viktor Wilck for 3rd, the impact would knock the battery from his otherwise undamaged TRF419 forcing him to retire. With Nicholas Lee taking the win over Krapp’s TRF team-mate Akio Sobue, the multiple Worlds finalist is still in contention for a Top 3 finish, a battle he looks set to have with Yokomo’s Meen Vejrak, and he ‘hopes to pull it off’ so that if his Tamiya team wins a record fifth Reedy Race title with Rheinard he will be part of those podium celebrations.
View the event image gallery here.