In much colder temperatures and under the threat of rain, the fifth round of Invitational competition kicked off Day Two with more grip than was available on Friday - and that threw some racers for a loop, while still others had to adjust their driving styles to stay on the track. The change in conditions provided a level playing field, leaving the world’s fastest touring car racers once again scrambling for every possible spot.
Marc Rheinard, the points leader after Day One, started from the inside of the front row with Alexander Hagberg just a few feet to his right - and the two were never separated by much more than that as the race raged on for third behind them. Hagberg tried to move past Rheinard, who played masterful defense. On the final lap, Viktor Wilck collided with JJ Wang, sending the young Chinese-American driver to fifth and allowing Cavalieri to cross the line in fourth. After the race, Wilck was penalized two places, moving Cavalieri to third and Wang to fourth.
“It was different to drive than yesterday,” said Rheinard, who said that the colder track gave his TRF419 more bite in the front which made the rear end of the car feel looser. After two close calls in which his car nearly spun out, Marc said, “I just drove easy, and it turned out to be quite fast. It all worked out.” Despite increasing pressure from the Swedish driver behind him, Rheinard simply focused on not making mistakes that would give his rival an opportunity to pass. “I just tried to keep it on the track,” said Rheinard.
Rick Hohwart started from the pole position in the second heat of round five, but Meen Vejrak and Nicholas Lee both moved past on the first lap. At the 2:30 mark, Hohwart got out of shape through the kink and Ronald Völker, who made it through the opening lap shuffle to improve from eighth on the grid to fourth, swept past into third. Vejrak sped off to the win by two seconds while Lee successfully held off the hard-charging Völker for second by just sixteen-hundredths.
“I got a good start, passed Rick (Hohwart) in the first corner, and it was my game,” said Vejrak, who sat third in points after the first day. “I controlled everything, safe drive, no mistakes,” said the Thai driver, who commented that the increased grip this morning gave his Yokomo BD7 more oversteer than he anticipated - which is why getting the good start and controlling the pace was so important.
From the outside of row two, off-road World Champion Ty Tessmann swept past Keven Hébert and Charlee Phutiyotin on the first lap and looked poised for the upset of the weekend - but it wasn’t meant to be. Just before the one-minute mark, Tessmann climbed too far up the curb in the carousel corner following the kink and rolled over, dropping him to sixth. Naoto Matsukura was the biggest benefactor of the mistake, moving out front and pulling away by nearly nine seconds. Hébert moved into second after Tessmann’s rollover, but made a mistake on the following lap and then again a few laps later, sliding back to fourth. The Canadian’s misfortune allowed Team Associated teammate Juho Levanen into second, where he finished up. Just past the 2:00 mark, young Japanese sensation Naoki Akiyama moved past both Phutiyotin and Hébert into third.
“It was good - better than yesterday,” said Matsukura of his Tamiya TRF419 as the track had more bite. Even though he started fifth, the World Champion described his path through traffic as “easy” and that he felt no pressure.
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