Völker finishes second behind Orlowski, Lauter moves up from sixth to third in first Modified A-Main
The first A-Main of the FlySky Modified class saw top qualifier Michal Orlowski laying down a great run at Arena Nova. After sweeping qualifying, the Schumacher driver was leading each and every lap of A1 to win the run by 1.4 seconds over a much-improved looking Ronald Völker.
After A1, Völker reported that his mechanic Robert Pietsch “made many changes to the car” which seemed to pay off in a better pace. But before Völker was able to finish second, he had to hold off the Awesomatix car of Marc Rheinard in the first 10 laps of the race. Rheinard was very close to Völker until he was overshooting the left turn after the fast infield chicane which caused a collision with between Rheinard, and Urbain. Both lost positions to Simon Lauter who moved up to third from sixth on the grid.
Meanwhile, Orlowski was still leading and Völker was in second. The gap remained the same until they crossed the line after the intense five-minute race ahead of Lauter, Rheinard, Ronnefalk (fastest lap of A1 13.614), and Urbain.
Sparbier executes perfect A1 ahead of hard charging Izsay
Xray driver Adam Izsay was pushing super hard in A1 to stay with Mugen Seiki`s Sören Sparbier. It was clearly visible that Izsay was throwing all he could onto Sparbier, but the German did not crack under the pressure and drove a perfect race to win the first Pro Stock A-Main with a small gap of 0.4 seconds over Adam Izsay.
The top duo had a huge gap of four seconds over the rest of the field which saw Mark Valent, our new Pro Stock champion Lukas Ellerbrock, and Kevin Schmid rounding out the top five on Saturday evening. Sören Sparbier is only one leg away from his second Pro Stock win – can Izsay stop him in A2?
Smid wins FWD A1 at Arena Nova from third on the grid
Frederik Hovgaard touched race leader Phil Langner in the fourth lap of the race. Hovgaard waited for Langner, but both dropped back to 4th and 5th spot. Dominik Reile took over the lead with his iris car and was followed by Wiktor Smid, and Mark Valent. It was a very important situation for Valent with having the overall championship decision still in mind!
On top of the field, Reile was defending his position with great driving until Smid made a hard but still fair “on the edge” move on Reile in the infield of the track. After a lot of chaos, Wiktor Smid took the win in A1 ahead of Dominik Reile, Mark Valent, Phil Langner, and Olav Dahle. Smid crossed the line under the immense applause of the crowd – what a race!
Masters A1 goes to Ehrbar and Xray
On the sound of the tone, TQ David Ehrbar launched his Xray car off the line and brought the field around the first laps of the race. Michel Zierold followed him with a gap of one second after the first minute. Eric Anderson was running in third – another second behind Zierold. The top three had been able to break away form the rest of the field which was led by Ulrich Dinger, Mirco Thalheimer, and Simon Schindler.
On top, Ehrbar was increasing the gap tenth by tenth and lap after lap to build up a comfortable gap of 2 seconds once he crossed the finish line. Eric Anderson pushed hard to close in on Zierold but he was running out of time and the two Awesomatix drivers took second and third place behind A1 winner Ehrbar.
Kriz takes opening A-Main on Saturday evening – a big break for the championship!
Top qualifier Jaroslav Kriz was immediately under pressure from Bajusz Zsolt and had to defend his position. Nadine Zühlke, Tobias Baumbach, and Kristian Jensen followed with a little bit of a gap. Bajusz Zsolt was showing a good patience behind Kriz as both Xray cars dominated the race and Zsolt also knew that Kriz was still racing for the overall ETS championship.
At the half minute mark, Zsolt rolled his car over in the right part of the track and gave a lot of breathing room to race leader Kriz. The young Slovakian never looked back end brought a perfect race to a successful ending with a solid win in A1. Zsolt was still able to finish second in A1 while Nadine Zühlke had a great battle with Tobias Baumbach until Baumbach had to give up a spot to Kristian Jensen who made a nice pass on him. The finishing order in A1 was Kriz, Zsolt, Zühlke, Jensen, and Baumbach in the top 5.
Lipperheide takes lucky win in A1 as Ehrbar crashes into Stenger
Thomas Stenger had a good and careful start into the race with his Xray Formula car. After Ehrbar made a small mistake in lap 3, Stenger had some breathing room, but Ehrbar quickly found his way back to the tail of Stenger and they raced nose to tail after the first minute in A1. Michael Lipperheide also jumped onto the DRS train and was running in third place – and in striking distance to Ehrbar and Stenger. Ehrbar was pushing his old friend Stenger hard around the track and waited for something to happen. In the last two minutes, Stenger was able to pull a little gap to Ehrbar again as Ehrbar had his rear-view mirror full of Michal Lipperheide.
However, Ehrbar had a strong comeback in the last 60 seconds of the race and Stenger could not cruise to an easy win. Ehrbar was all over Stenger and the Xray drivers showed great Formula racing at Area Nova. Thomas Stenger was almost over the line when David Ehrbar was crashing into his rear destroying the race of both drivers. Michael Lipperheide was the lucky guy and took the win which was handed over to him on a silver plate. Stenger was really upset after the race and race direction decided to swap his third place with Ehrbar`s second spot to give Stenger at least the position back which he lost to Ehrbar in the crash. A real drama in A1.
