Rheinard wins A1 as Volker & Coelho tangle at TITC
Marc Rheinard has taken the win in the opening A-Main at the TITC, the Awesomatix handed the lead after Bruno Coelho made contact with Top Qualifier Ronald Volker as he challenged the Mugen driver’s lead. With the Top 2 quickly pulling clear off the field, Rheinard’s passage to the front started when he capitalised on a mistake from a struggling Alexander Hagberg to go to third. Starting third on the grid, Hagberg afterwards described his car as being ‘like driving on ice’ before contact from Naoto Matsukura put him out of the race with a broken car. With Volker and Coelho still locked in battle at the front as the race passed the half way distance, Rheinard would be gifted the lead as Coelho ran into the rear of Volker after the chicane. With enough of a gap to resume racing in the lead, unfortunately the impact had broken the anti tuck on Volker’s car and as the German tried to turn around having been spun his car flipped. As Coelho waited on Volker, Rheinard went to the front where he would stay finishing 1.6 seconds ahead of the Infinity of Matsukura. Battling their way back up through the order Volker would finished 3rd with Coelho right behind in 4th.
