Day Three of the Reedy International Touring Car Race of Champions once again opened up under ominous skies, and the gloom struck title favorites Marc Rheinard and Ronald Völker in round nine - opening the door for both championship contender Christopher Krapp to close the gap, as well as yet another first-time race winner who drew one of the largest responses yet from the audience at Tamiya USA Raceway.
Japanese Tamiya driver Akio Sobue jumped out to the start in the first heat on Sunday morning, leading from inside row one on the grid and held on for the win. Off the start, Sobue was followed closely by Steven Weiss and Naoto Matsukura, though Weiss was shuffled back to fourth behind Matsukura and Viktor Wilck by the end of lap one. Just 1:00 into the race, Matsukura hit the curbing in the carousel and Wilck went by for second. At 1:55, JJ Wang tried to pass Matsukura entering the first 180 and the two hit, setting off a chain reaction that shuffled up the running order. Weiss and Alexander Hagberg moved into third and fourth. Just past the halfway mark, Weiss went wide coming onto the straightaway and Hagberg drove by on the inside for third. Sobue beat Wilck to the line by two seconds, with another 3.1 seconds from Wilck to Hagberg.
“It was good - I made no changes to my car,” said Sobue after his second round win of the weekend. “No crash, easy drive,” said Sobue, “Viktor was very fast, lot of pressure. Once Viktor crashed, no pressure.”
Defending champion Ronald Völker, who was second in points after Day Two, wasn’t so lucky. “I stayed patient in the beginning as I started last,” said the German, “I came up to fifth, then JJ and Naoto crashed directly in front of me. I tried to go around, but they collected me. I could only get back to fourth.”
Ralph Burch Jr. started outside the first row and benefitted from a rough first lap from pole sitter EJ Evans. Once Burch was in the lead he pulled away, finishing six seconds up on the rest of the field. In fact, Burch crossed the line after lap one a full second ahead of the rest of the field, as several drivers played pinball off one another. Thomas Pumpler came out of the melee second with Keven Hébert third. Around the halfway point, Levanen roughed up his Canadian Team Associated teammate through the chicane for third and Naoki Akiyama also passed Hébert for fourth. At 3:40, Levanen passed Pumpler for third through the chicane, but two laps later Pumpler hit Levanen in the 180. The crash knocked Pumpler to fourth and Levanen to fifth, moving Akiyama and Hébert into second and third. Akiyama held off Hébert by a half second at the finish line.
“My car has been good, I just finally got a good start,” said Burch, “it seems that if I get a good start, I blow it or get taken out.” The XRAY driver said that his car has been best on new tires but falls off a bit once the tires have been run once. “I had the fastest lap of the whole weekend (12.081), so I’m really happy about that. Now I have two back row starts, but that’s okay. It’s nice to be in the mix for once.
In the third heat, Ryan Cavalieri led the pack off the start from inside row one ahead of Christopher Krapp and Andrew Hardman. On the second lap, Hardman went wide entering the chicane, which let Yokomo teammate Meen Vejrak slip by for third. The following lap, Cavalieri got out of shape entering the 180 and Krapp swept by for the lead. At 3:15, Cavalieri hit the curb in the keyhole and Meen moved into second. Krapp finished 74-hundredths of a second ahead of Vejrak, who had 3.5 seconds on Cavalieri
“I’m really happy to start the day with a win because yesterday morning was a mess,” said Krapp, who closed the gap on Rheinard and Völker in overall points. “I got lucky when Cavalieri spun off and I got through,” said the German driver, who had to hold off the hard-charging Vejrak once the Thai driver also cleared the off-road champion. “I think everything is wide open now, so it should be a good fight.”
Like Völker, Rheinard had his worst finish of the event on Sunday morning. “I just couldn’t pass,” said the four-time champ, who started seventh on the grid. He climbed up to fifth in the second half of the race but rolled in the sweeper with three laps to go. “By the time I got going, they were already gone in front.”
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