Day Two closed with the eighth round of Invitational class racing and even more fireworks between some of the event’s top drivers. Another surprise winner emerged in Saturday’s final round as well, setting up exciting scenarios across standings heading into the last day of competition.
In the first heat, last year’s Open Mod champion Gonzalo Cortes spun out in the first 180. The mistake allowed JJ Wang - who started alone on the front row - to get away with Ralph Burch and Christopher Krapp in pursuit. At 1:10, Burch went wide in the keyhole and Krapp passed. At the halfway mark, Nicholas Lee passed Burch for third and then two laps later, Burch hit Lee in the first 180 trying to pass him back. That opened the door for Andrew Hardman to move into third. Wang held on for the win by 1.3 seconds ahead of Krapp, who finished nearly 1.7 seconds ahead of Hardman.
“Finally, finally got my first win!” said JJ Wang, who made it clear that Andreas Myberg couldn’t have possibly been watching online. The 17-year-old said his car was difficult to drive, which he believed was caused by a tweaked right rear wheel that was damaged in a crash in the previous round. “I was able to pull away at the beginning and just held my position,” said Wang, who stayed aware of what was happening around him. “Christopher was catching fast, so I was just trying to protect my line,” said Wang, who repeatedly said “Finally!” about the long wait for his first victory.
In the second heat, Meen Vejrak got a clean start ahead of Ronald Völker and Juho Levanen. Less than one minute into the race, Levanen went wide at the end of the sweeper and Akio Sobue snuck by for third. With less than a minute to go, Vejrak went wide in the keyhole and Völker dove to the inside. The two touched in the kink and both spun out, putting Völker onto the center island. The German drove off of the island ahead of Vejrak and kept the lead. The race officials determined that the contact was simply a racing incident and that the contact was just as much Vejrak’s fault, so they did not penalize Völker.
“Meen and I pulled away, which was good, so we could get a gap behind us before going heads up,” said Völker. About the incident, he said, “(Meen) went wide before the kink, so I took a chance and went ahead. He slightly tapped me, so my car jumped over the carousel. As it was, in my opinion, his fault, since he tapped me while I was ahead, I feel it was okay.” Comfortable with the officials’ decision and having cleared up the incident with his Yokomo teammate, Völker said, “It was nice to get another win to go for a podium finish tomorrow.”
Marc Rheinard got off to a clean start ahead of Freddy Sudhoff and Thomas Pumpler. By the end of the first lap, however, Viktor Wilck passed Pumpler in the chicane to move into third. On lap three, Wilck passed Sudhoff on the inside entering the short chute. At 2:45, Wilck crashed in the chicane and Sudhoff got back by him. With 1:00 to go, Wilck passed Sudhoff back in the hairpin. Meanwhile, Rheinard had stretched out a seven-second gap and got by for an extra lap, while Wilck beat Sudhoff to the line by seven-tenths.
“It was fine!” said Rheinard, who was clearly upset over the non-call in the case of the Völker/Vejrak incident. “I took advantage of the #1 position - it was a good, clean run,” said the German. “I tried to put in a good finishing time in case it comes down to the tiebreaker. I just tried to get a good start and pull away.”
Eng / Usd
Français
Deutsch
Italiano
Recent comments