Rheinard adds 1:12 European title 17-years after last win

Having won the European Electric Touring Car Championship last year 13-years after he last held the title, Marc Rheinard has become the EFRA 1:12 European Champion once again after 17-years.  Racing in Zwevegem, Belgium, qualifying for the 42nd running of the championship saw the CRC of Ollie Payne hold the overnight TQ after taking Q1.  Saturday’s action would see former World Champion Rheinard’s Awesomatix open with the fastest time in Q2 and another TQ in Q3 before Payne would come back to take the final two rounds. This left the duo tied on points but with his Q2 time the fastest of the 5 rounds it was Rheinard who was the Top Qualifier.  Behind, Schumacher’s reigning 1:12 World Champion and defending European Champion Michal Orlowski secured P3 with two Top 3 runs while Xray duo Adam Izsay and 8-time EFRA Champion Alexander Hagberg made up the top half of the A-Main grid.  In the finals, A1 saw Rheinard put in a perfect run to claim the win by 4 & a half seconds from Orlowski who got ahead of his former team-mate Payne in the final minute of the 8-minute encounter.  In A2 was a much closer affair as Payne ran right with Rheinard until traffic caused the British driver to hit the boards and drop to third.  Recovering the position he couldn’t find a way past the German who took it by 6/10ths and with it became the 2025 European Champion, the first driver to hold both the Touring Car & 1:12 title  simultaneously since he last did the double back in 2008!  With Orlowski winning A3, the Polish driver would finish runner-up with Payne completing the Modified podium.  In 1:12 Spec, Payne would claim the title having started from the TQ ahead of Spec World Champion Max Machler, the Awesomatix driver also finishing runner-up with the similar car of Olivier Bultynck taking the final podium position.

Image: Marc Rheinard [Facebook]