REEDY TC: Four-time winner Rheinard leads defending champ Volker after Day Two

0 May 24, 2015, 2:18 a.m.

By Aaron Waldron

LiveRC.com

After two exciting days of Invitational competition at the 2015 Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions, the driver with the best chance of preventing four-time winner Marc Rheinard from making history with a record fifth title is the one who won it all last year. Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, is the Reedy Race rookie who has a chance at pulling off an unbelieveable upset and beat them both.

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The champion in 2006, 2007, 2011, and 2013, Marc Rheinard burst out of the gate on Friday with three round wins, and then won three more again on Saturday. The Tamiya driver has showed an uncanny combination of both skillful car control and unshakable patience, exploiting passing opportunities whenever available and knowing when to back off rather than risk bigger trouble. It's no wonder he's won this event four times before, and if he can close the deal on Sunday afternoon he'll break a tie with fellow four-time champ Barry Baker for the most titles ever.

Winner in 2009 and 2014, Ronald Völker's speed and tenacity that has earned him every major title available in touring car racing short of the IFMAR ISTC Worlds has kept him in contention heading into Sunday's final four rounds. Aside from Rheinard and Baker, Völker is the only other racer who has won the Reedy Race more than once. Though he trails his fellow German by two points when counting 6 of the 8 rounds completed, Völker does have an advantage - his throwouts are two third-place finishes, whereas Rheinard has a third and a fifth.

A third German driver, Christopher Krapp, could be the dark horse that spoils the parade for both former winners. The multi-time IFMAR Worlds finalist switched from Kyosho to Tamiya for the 2015 season, and is still searching for the first major win of his career. After eight rounds, he sits just three points out of the lead and one adrift of Völker, but his current throwouts - a sixth and a ninth - are the worst of the bunch. Krapp's path to achieving RC immortality sounds simpler than the feat will be to execute, but he needs to win as many rounds as possible on Sunday to put the pressure on his rivals.

Here are the point standings counting six of the eight rounds:

Click the chart for the full-size version