The third round was the most intense yet, with notable developments in all three heats that shook up not only the round results but could have serious implications for the overall finishing order. While some of the pre-race favorites faltered, a few surprise names were given a chance to gain some valuable points - while the most successful driver in Reedy Touring Car Race history continued his brilliant start to the event.
Fifteen-year-old Naoki Akiyama started from the first spot on the grid, and he used his advantage to break away from the field for the win. The race behind him got ugly - Christopher Krapp, Andy Moore, and EJ Evans all broke before the first minute, and several cars made contact throughout the race. Once free from the melee, Andrew Hardman and Viktor Wilck set off in pursuit of the young Japanese driver, but Akiyama held on by less than a half-second to win a heat in his first time competing the Reedy Race. “It was fun! I was really nervous, but I had a lot of fun,” said Akiyama through a translator.
Naoto Matsukura held the top spot from the front of the grid, while Freddy Sudhoff moved quickly from outside row three to the second position in just over a minute. Sudhoff tried a couple of times to get by the world champion in the sweeper, and just after the 3:00 mark the HB driver slammed into the back of Matsukura’s Tamiya - sending the world champ into the wall and earning himself a trip to the penalty box. Matsukura dropped out of the race two laps later, and Sudhoff fought his way back to fourth by race end. During the commotion, Rheinard inherited the lead after starting tenth on the grid and finished 1.6 seconds up on Rick Hohwart, who himself had a 1.6 second gap to Team Associated teammate Juho Levanen.
“It was good! From tenth to first is not bad,” said Rheinard. “I got a great start and once I got into third I just tried to follow Freddy and Naoto - when they made contact, I got by,” he added. “Once I got out front,” said Marc, “I just tried to save the tires at the end because there was nobody behind me.”
Akio Sobue would’ve had the front row to himself had he been able to make the start, but instead Hagberg and Cavalieri started ahead of the rest of the grid. Hagberg hit Cavalieri heading into turn one while trying to dive inside, and both dropped to the back of the field. Yokomo teammates Ronald Völker and Meen Vejrak moved into first and second, and then Völker crashed through the kink at the 1:25 mark. The German tried desperately to close the gap on Vejrak, but the Thai driver held on by less than 18-hundredths of a second for the win.
“That was a good run!” said Vejrak, who added, “the fight with Ronald was a lot of fun. He spun out and I hit him, and it changed the aerodynamics on the front of the body. After I got by, I kept it safe and drove smooth.”
After the end of round three, a change was made to the schedule to run the fourth Invitational round an hour sooner in order to finish before sundown.
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