Ronald Volker is crowned the 2013 EFRA 1:10 TC European Champion

 

The 2013 EFRA 1:10 Touring Car European Championship was held at the beautiful race facility in Torres Novas, Portugal. Despite the high temperatures of up to more than 35°C, racers and spectators enjoyed an absolutely great event. The fast and demanding asphalt track was in best conditions to host the highlight of the touring car racing season. In addition, the technical inspection of the EFRA team was very precise, resulting in totally fair racing.
 
 
For the top guys of the European touring car scene, it was the chance to strike back after Ronald’s recent victory at the ETS final. Drivers like World Champion Jilles Groskamp, former World Champion Marc Rheinard, Alexander Hagberg, Elliott Harper to name only a few made this Euro a highly competitive event. The LRP team, headed by Jürgen E. Lautenbach, travelled to Portugal with team drivers Ronald Völker, Freddy Südhoff, Viljami Kutvonen, Steven Weiß, Cyril N’Diaye and Olivier Bultynck as well as team support Ales Dobnikar. Everybody was fully focussed on best possible results for “Blue is Better”!
 
To cut a long story short: they fully succeeded. From the first heats of practice, Ronald impressed with a perfect, consistent and absolutely error-free performance on the highest level. Ronald Völker won Q1 and Q2 in style. Alexander Hagberg had the best start into the next day, finishing 1:10 of a second ahead of Ronald in the third round of qualifying. As the weather was not that hot in the morning, Q3 was the fastest of qualifying. So, Alexander would need only one more win to secure overall TQ. But Ronald kept totally cool. Despite the pressure from Alexander Hagberg, the LRP ace secured the overall TQ by winning also Q4 and Q5. Four victories in five rounds made him the top favourite for the upcoming A-mains.

  

The qualifying was a great success for “Blue is Better”: other than Ronald, also Viljami Kutvonen (sixth) and Freddy Südhoff (ninth) qualified to the A-finals.
 
 
Ronald Völker pushed to a ‘lights to flag victory’ in the first of the three A-mains. By controlling the race from the top, he was also able to prevent the tyres from overheating, resulting in a good grip level over the complete run. Behind Ronald, Alexander Hagberg finished second ahead of Elliott harper. The top three were able to pull away from the field in the beginning of A2. Now, Alexander Hagberg was forced to go at full risk. But it was again Ronald who kept cool and withstood the immense pressure from Alexander. In the end, LRP team driver Ronald Völker crossed the line first and took the overall victory at the 2013 EFRA 1:10 TC Euros already after the second A-main. Alexander Hagberg and Elliott Harper came in second and third again.
 

The new champion decided not to race A3. By winning the last final, Alexander Hagberg secured the overall second place on the podium. Elliott Harper crossed the line behind Alexander and finished third overall. LRP team driver Freddy Südhoff crowned his blistering performance in the A-finals with a third place in A3. Unimpressed by an unlucky “take off” in the first final, Freddy drove to the fourth position in A2. The overall ranking saw Freddy Südhoff on position four – starting from nine! With a fifth and a seventh place, Viljami Kutvonen found himself on the overall eighth position.

   

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