LRP TCM 2014 day 2 – Report
Today the remaining four rounds of qualifying were run at this year’s LRP Touring Car Masters in Rüsselsheim. Yesterday had qualifying victories of Ronald Völker in the Masters Class and Oliver Franke in the 10.5T Open Stock Class. The three LRP-HPI Challenge classes were won by Daniel Anthes (17.5T), Patrick Greinke (Classic) and Nico Müller (Rookie). The Masters class showed real close racing in Q2. Taking a look at the best times there where eight drivers between 19.554s and 19.693s. Ronald Völker started first and took the lead closely followed by a bunch of drivers. Freddy Südhoff and Marc Fischer as the first pursuits had issues during their runs. Also Yannic Prümper, who chased Ronald, crashed mid-race. In the end Ronald Völker drove his LRP powered Yokomo to victory. Second place went to Viljami Kutvonen, third to Alexander Hagberg.
Viljami Kutvonen then challenged Ronald Völker hard in Q3. Viljami took the lead in the first laps. One Minute into the race Ronald upped the pace and Viljami rolled his Awesomatix as he tried to stay on top. In the end Ronald won the third qualifier in front of Viljami Kutvonen who recaptured place two with Alexander Hagberg sitting in third place.
Ronald Völker got a better start in Q4. His Yokomo worked well from the beginning and he started to pull away. It looked like a secure run for Ronald but on lap 13 he rolled his car in front of the drivers stand. He dropped back to 6th place, while Viljami Kutvonen took the lead and eventually took the round TQ. Marc Fischer finished second and Ronald recovered to third position.
The final qualifying heat of the day in the Masters class clearly was between Ronald Völker and Viljami Kutvonnen. Viljami needed a faster run than Ronald who scored the fastest time of the day so far. Both drivers started furious, fighting for the lead but in lap 7 Viljami rolled his car over and Ronald opened a small gap. Only one lap later, Ronald crashed his car and had to retire from the race. Now it was Ronald’s Yokomo teammate Yannic Prümper who was in the lead, trying to hold off Viljami. In the end Viljami pushed his Awesomatix to the limit, taking back the lead and capturing the TQ spot in the last heat of the day.
Modified class qualifying result
1. Viljami Kutvonen – Awesomatix
2. Ronald Völker – Yokomo
3. Marc Fischer – Serpent
4. Yannic Prümper – Yokomo
5. Alexander Hagberg – Xray
6. Freddy Südhoff – Awesomatix
7. Dominik Fleischmann – Yokomo
8. Dionis Stadler – Awesomatix
9. Marco Kaufmann – Xray
10.Lucas Urbain – VBC
Jan Ratheisky drove an intelligent race and took an the victory in round two of the 10.5T Open Stock class. The three top guys all made a small mistake in lap 3 and 4. Oliver Franke, who started first, fell back closely behind Jan and started to push hard. Jan quickly let Oliver pass and just stuck to his rear. In the end, Oliver flipped his car once again and Jan finished with a new fastest time.
The third Open Stock class qualifier had some impressive racing to offer. It was again Oliver Franke, Jan Ratheisky and Marek Cerny who where in a class of their own. Marek Cerny was chasing Oliver with Jan half a second behind. With two laps to go Marek’s Xray came up on two wheels and he lost that 0.5s. Oliver won in front of Jan and Marek. Impressive also the drive of young Jan-Phillip Staab in one of the lower groups who secured the fourth place with his Yokomo. The fourth qualifying round was even more exciting. After very close racing with four different leaders it was Oliver Franke leading the pack into the last lap. At the end Marek Cerny won the leg while three drivers lost a place or two without any real mistake in the last lap. Now it was Oliver on top of the time sheet but Marek and Jan could catch up for TQ in the last run too.
For the last qualifier of the 10.5T Open Stock class Marek Cerny used a 40g lighter LiPo battery to improve the balance of his car. A new fastest time of the day and the TQ spot was the result for Marek. Jan Ratheisky secured the second place in this round with a new personal best lap and runtime. Third place went to Oliver Franke.
Open Stock class qualifying result
1. Marek Cerny – Xray
2. Oliver Franke – Awesomatix
3. Jan Ratheisky – Xray
4. Patrick Gassauer – Team Magic
5. Andreas Myrberg – Xray
6. Steffen Leinburger – Awesomatix
7. Jan-Phillip Staab – Yokomo
8. Bernhard Bopp – Hot Bodies
9. Tony Streit – Awesomatix
10.Thorsten Zorn – Schumacher
The 17.5T Challenge class saw a really close battle for round two. A few fast guys including Daniel Anthes, the winner of round one, made mistakes and it was Özer Yürüm with Awesomatix who took the win. Stefan Weihmayer finished second only two tenth of a second behind. Third place went to Tim Kuntz.
The third 17.5T Challenge qualifier saw Daniel Anthes with a strong showing but he crashed his Serpent half away through the race. Tim Kunz took back the lead and was able to win this round in front of Özer Yürüm and Michael Spiering. In Q4 Daniel Anthes hold his nerves and drove to a superb victory with a new fastest lap and new fastest time of the day with a gap of 1.5s to second place. The second place went to Michael Spiering climbed up the timing sheets step by step and Tim Kunz finished third.
The last qualifier of the 17.5T Challenge had Daniel starting a little careful but he soon pulled away. He won the last qualifier in the 17.5T challenge class and secured overall TQ in front of Tim Kuntz. Third place in round 5 went to Andreas Klei who achieved a top three result for the first time today.
17.5T Challenge qualifying top 3
1. Daniel Anthes – Serpent
2. Tim Kuntz – Xray
3. Özer Yürüm – Awesomatix
Patrick Greinke the Classic Challenge winner of Q1 one had some problems with the servo saver of his HPI Sprint 2 in Q2. His DNF cleared the way for Frank Holz to take this round. But it was a close fight between Frank and Erwin Kruse that was decided by a few fast last laps of Frank. Third spot went to Klaas Pollert.
In Q3, Frank Holz and Patrick Greinke had a real close battle for the victory in the Classic challenge. The gap was below one second for the whole run. In the end Frank won with less then a tenth of a second in front of Patrick. Third place went to Erwin Kruse. For round 4 Patrick found back to old strength. He drove a new fastest lap of 25,2s what was nearly a second faster than his rivals. That summed up in a new fastest time of the day and his second victory. Dirk Malak who just arrived this morning got faster every run and secured second spot. Frank Holz finished third. So we have Frank and Patrick with “0” points in the lead and the last round of qualifying would decide the final position for the A-mains.
Like in round 4 Patrick Greinke was really concentrated and drove a faultless heat. Frank Holz could not follow Patrick and took second spot with an also error free run. Dirk Malak could again improve his time and secured third place and also third spot on the time sheets.
Classic Challenge qualifying top 3
1. Patrick Greinke
2. Frank Holz
3. Dirk Malak
The Rookie Challenge started first on the second day of racing. In the first laps, Nico Müller was a little unconcentrated meaning quite a few drivers battled for the lead. But in the second half of the race Nico got back on pace and took a save win in front of Laura Pollert und Martin Hefkaluk.
The 3rd qualifier of the Rookie class again saw again a victory of Nico Müller. His strongest rival Laura Pollert had a DNF so young Julian Garbi took over the second spot. Third place went to Karsten Schneider. In the 4th qualifier racing changed. Laura Pollert could drive a new fastest lap and took the lead right from the start. Martin Hefkaluk finished second and Lars Linder third.
In the end, the Rookie Challenge presented us some kind of tragedy. Nico Müller who won Q1-Q3 forgot to reinstall his transponder after working on his car. With Nico already beaten, Laura Pollert took the opportunity with a really good run to beat Nico’s best time by 0.5s handing the young lady the TQ for the finals.
Rookie Challenge qualifying top 3
1. Laura Pollert
2. Nico Müller
3. Martin Hefkaluk
Source: LRP [lrp.cc]
