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.
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Chassis – TOP Racing Sabre
Motor – Hobbywing 4.5
ESC – Hobbywing
Batteries – R1 Wurks 6000mah
Tires – Sweep (handout)
Radio/Servo – Futaba
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – American TOP team driver EJ Evans is racing the Reedy Race of Champion with an almost entirely stock version of the Sabre. The only options to be found on the car are an aluminium center pulley and low friction belts.
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Contesting his first Reedy International Touring Car Race of Champions at the famous Tamiya Raceway in California, Christopher Krapp got the final day underway with an important win that puts the Tamiya driver in contention for the overall win at the 18th running of the event. His fourth win from 9 races, the result was made even more significant because the same round would see overnight points leader Marc Rheinard and defending champion Ronald Volker post their worst results so far. In the other two races, Tamiya’s Akio Sobue notched up a second win ahead of Viktor Wilck while former 200mm World Champion Ralph Burch claimed a popular first win of the event.
Krapp said it ‘feels really good to start the day with a win’. The win over Meen Vejrak and Ryan Cavalieri, ‘opens everything up again’ and having ended Day 2 third in the points table that moved the German up to second just one point behind TRF team-mate Marc Rheinard. Another cold morning, Krapp said his Orion powered TRF419 was a little edgy for the day’s opening race but should, like yesterday, the sun come out he is confident he will have a good car for the remaining three rounds of racing. Running in the same heat as Krapp, Rheinard described his race as ‘horrible’. Starting from 7th on the grid, the 4-time champion was battling with Nicolas Lee for fourth but with three laps to go he would clip the curbing through the sweeper launching his TRF419 into the fencing leaving the German to finish 9th.
Racing in the same heat that would be won by Sobue, Volker said that starting from last he had to be ‘very patient’. Up to 5th after the first minute, the ETS Champion was running behind World Champion Naoto Matsukura and HB’s JJ Wang but when the pair clashed he too got caught up in the incident losing him time. While he would catch up to third placed Alexander Hagberg he said he ‘couldn’t get by’ the Xray driver. Having to settle for 4th which drops him to third in the standings he said now the only way he was going to defend his title was if both Krapp and Rheinard had bad results the next one. Starting from his first pole position for the 10th round, he said with Rheinard in the same race it’s going to be an important one to win.
Starting Race 2 from the pole, RC America boss Ralph Burch was clearly happy to post a win at the Reedy Race. The Texan said he made a good start and was able to get away quickly, his winning margin being a massive 6-seconds. Taking his Xray T4 to the fastest lap of the round, he said while it was ‘not the most comfortable to drive’ it has been really quick throughout the event but he hasn’t had good starts and when he did he ‘took (himself) out’. Unfortunately his chance of a repeat win will be limited due to his starting positions for the rest of the day, him starting last in 2 of them.
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Chassis – HB Pro5
Motor – Reedy 4.5
ESC – LRP
Batteries – Reedy 6500mah
Tires – Sweep (handout)
Radio/Servo – Ko Propo
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – Young HB team driver JJ Wang is here at the Tamiya Raceway running a very standard example of the Japanese company’s PRO5. The only changes to the car are that it is fitted with a Hiro Seiko titanium screw set and LeeSpeed gearing.
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