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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Wilck & Rheinard tie for TQ honours in Q4

Tamiya Racing Factory team-mates Viktor Wilck and Marc Rheinard have set identical fastest times in the fourth round of qualifying for the 2010 World Championships. Recording 24 laps in 5:05.029, Wilck had the edge over the defending Champion but on the last lap caught a curb which flipped his TRF416, costing the Swede over a second. The time means the pair will each get the maximum 155 points.

Backing up his second in Q3, Alexander Hagberg again ran a very fast pace with his Xray T3. Running in the second fastest heat group the Swedish driver recorded his fastest time so far.  Having not featured inside the Top 10 in the opening three qualifiers Team Yokomo’s Hayato Matsuzaki has found something, the Japanese former 2WD Off Road World Champion taking his BD5 around the small technical track in the fourth fastest time of the round.

He may be working in the shadow of his two former World Champion team-mates at Hot Bodies but new team signing Freddy Sudhoff is doing a superb job on his Worlds debut.  Changing his tyre preparation and additive for Q4 he set the team’s best qualifying run with the fifth fastest time.  Fastest of those on used tyres Jilles Groskamp completed the Top 6.

Top 10 Qualifying times for Round 4
1. Viktor Wilck (Tamiya TRF416) – 24/5:05.029
=  Marc Rheinard (Tamiya TRF416) – 24/5:05.029
3. Alexander Hagberg (Xray T3) – 24/5:05.381
4. Hayato Matsuzaki (Yokomo BD5) – 24/5:05.656
5. Freddy Sudhoff (Hot Bodies TCX) – 24/5:05.867
6. Jilles Groskamp (Tamiya TRF416) – 24/5:06.604
7. Elliot Harper (Tamiya TRF416) – 24/5:06.872
8. Cristopher Krapp (Kyosho TF6) – 24/5:07.366
9. Atsushi Hara (Hot Bodies TCX) – 24/5:07.524
10.Juho Levanen (Team Associated TC6) – 24/5:07.950

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Volker gets it done in Q3

With three rounds of qualifying completed here in Germany we now have three different drivers to produce a TQ run with Ronald Volker recording the fastest time in the 3rd round.  The German opted to run a fresh set of tyres while Rheinard and Groskamp were on used rubber.  Volker’s Yokomo took the maximum points from Alexander Hagberg, Christopher Krapp and a very impressive Groskamp.  Volker was really happy to finally get a good points tally but said he had to fight with his LRP powered BD5 for the entire run and came close to crashing on a number of occassions.

Xray’s Hagberg was also on fresh tyres but said switching back to the standard kit shock springs had made his T3 a lot better allowing him to run his best round.  Team-mate Paul Lemieux’s impressive morning runs came to end in Q3 as he found as he went to the grid that the steering servo in his T3 had been damaged in his ‘wreck’ on the last lap of the previous qualifier in which he took second.

Tipped pre-event to do well at Burgdorf, factory Kyosho/Orion driver Krapp said his car was brilliant.  Also running new tyres, German teenager said the difference between new and used is huge.  Finishing just 6/10th off Volker he said he felt he could have TQ’d the round but lost time when he had a moment trying to get passed the Associated of American Rick Howhart.

Top Qualifier in the opening round, Groskamp showed just how good a set-up he has on his Tamiya as he managed to get within 7/10ths of the fastest time for the round on used tyres.  The European Champion said his car is really good in the second half of the run when others drop off and is very happy with fourth which puts him in position for a Top 4 grid position in tomorrow final.  Despite running new tyres, team-mate Viktor Wilck couldn’t capitalise and could only manage a frustrating fifth, the Swede struggling with the balance of his TRF416.

Factory Corally driver Marc Fisher had a very strong run setting the seventh fastest time to seperated the Hot Bodies’ of former World Champions Andy Moore and Atsushi Hara.  Using his last set of fresh rubber Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper was ninth fastest followed by Juho Levanen who was best of the Team Associated squad.

Top 10 Qualifying times for Round 3
1. Ronald Völker (Yokomo BD5) – 24/5:06.708
2. Alexander Hagberg (Xray T3) – 24/5:06.907
3. Cristopher Krapp (Kyosho TF6) – 24/5:07.348
4. Jilles Groskamp (Tamiya TRF416) – 24/5:07.499
5. Viktor Wilck (Tamiya TRF416) – 24/5:07.628
6. Andy Moore (Hot Bodies TCX) – 24/5:08.243
7. Marc Fischer (Corally Prototype) – 24/5:08.415
8. Atsushi Hara (Hot Bodies TCX) – 24/5:08.717
9. Yannic Pruemper (Yokomo BD5) – 24/5:09.209
10.Juho Levanen (Team Associated TC6) – 24/5:09.826

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