Rheinard wins ETS Austria

Marc Rheinard has the latest ETS round in Austria, the Awesomatix driver taking the win from 3rd on the grid ahead of Xray’s Jan Ratheisky and Mugen’s Erik Dankel.  In qualifying at Aigen it was a Mugen lockout at the front of the grid with reigning Champion Ronald Volker securing the TQ from Dankel but in A1 Dankel made a brilliant start to get ahead of his team-mate to lead.  With just under a minute to go and with Rheinard in pursuit, Dankel rolled out of the lead handing Rheinard the win from Ratheisky and a recovering Volker.  In A2, with Volker flying off the track on Lap 2, Dankel was able to claim his first ever A-Main leg victory with Rheinard second and Xray’s Oliver Havranek third with Volker a DNF.  It was all to play for in A3 and with Volker crashing out early, the stakes were even higher between Dankel and Rheinard in a winner takes all battle.  Dankel again lead albeit under increasing pressure from the multiple World Champion and as the race approached the final minute Dankel would run wide in the sweeper at the end of the straight.  Rheinard seized the opportunity getting up his inside but the two cars touched with Dankel suffering a body tuck that dropped him to fourth.  Overall Rheinard secured his second ETS win as an Awesomatix driver, the first have come 11-months ago at his home track Arena33.  For Volker it was another disappointing weekend as he left Austria with points for P8.  Having missed the podium at the season opener in the Netherlands, where newly crowned 4WD Buggy European Champion Michal Orlowski took the win, the German is going to need a strong result at Round 3 to get his title defence back on track.  In Pro Stock, Adam Iszay enjoyed the perfect result securing the TQ and win for Xray, a result he also achieved in the FWD class.

Image: Marc Rheinard [Facebook]