May 26, 2014

2014 Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions – Report

2014 Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions – Report

The 2014 edition of the Reedy International Touring Car Race of Champions was run last weekend. After a 5-year absence the race took place at the Tamiya America track running a 13.5T Stock, Open Modified and the prestigious Invitational class. Both the 13.5T and Modified class where held in the standard format with triple A-mains while the Invitational class saw the iconic Reedy Race format with different heat lineups for each round. As usual the Invitational class collected the creme de la creme of today’s touring car drivers with the likes of Jilles Groskamp, Marc Rheinard, Andy Moore, Atsushi Hara, Ronald Völker, Meen Verjak or Paul Lemieux to name just a few.


Marc Rheinard, Andy Moore and Atsushi Hara started out strong, taking a win in their respective heats of round 1 of the Invitational class with Atsushi scoring the fastest overall time. Round 2 had Ronald Völker, Atsushi Hara and Juho Levanan taking a win each while Marc Rheinard suffered from a rough start but he was able to work his way back to 3rd in the heat behind Ryan Cavalieri in one of his few on-road outings. Round 3 then had Viktor Wilck, Paul Lemieux and Jilles Groskamp taking their first Invitational wins, showing that a lot of drivers would be in the mix for the overall class win. The 4th and final round of day one had Andy Moore, Marc Rheinard and Ronald Völker taking wins meaning Andy Moore, Marc Rheinard and Atsushi Hara would end the day sitting in the top 3.

2014 Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions – Report

In the Open Modified class VBC’s Randy Caster took TQ in the opening qualifier while the 13.5T class had ARC’s Henrik Heitsch taking the TQ honours.

2014 Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions – Report

Day two kicked off with a win of Ronald Völker after a late race pass on Paul Lemieux but light rain brought things to a halt in heat 2 of the 5th Invitational round. Once the track was good to go again, Viktor Wilck scored his second win while Meen Verjak took a win and the fastest time in heat 3. In the Open Modified class it was Kyle Klingforth who took TQ in round 2 while Henrik Heitsch took his second TQ on round 2 of the 13.5T class.

Heat 1 of round 6 of the Invitational class saw Ronald Völker score his fourth win and this made him a hot candidate for the overall title as Akio Sobue took a win in heat 2. Marc Rheinard cruised to his 3rd win in the final heat of round 6. Halfway through the event and Ronald Volker was tie on points with Marc Rheinard while Hara, Moore and Wilck followed behind with two wins each. The Open Modified qualifying had Gonzalo Cortes taking TQ in round 3 while Henrik Heitsch made it 3 out of 3 in the 13.5T class.

2014 Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions – Report

Round 7 of the Invitational class kicked off with wins of Jilles Groskamp and Ronald Völker, who scored a 5th win, while heat 3 had “old dude” Rick Hohwart taking an impressive win. Round 8 and it was Marc Rheinard who took a 4th win while Andy Moore held off Ronald for the win in heat 2. Jilles Groskamp finished off the day with the win in heat 3 having him moving up to 3rd place overall behind Ronald and Marc. Elsewhere in the Open Modified class Team Associated’s Gonzalo Cortes took the overall TQ while Henrik Heitsch grabbed the overall TQ honours in the 13.5T class.

Come the final day of the Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions and Jilles Groskamp started out strong with a 3rd consecutive win while off-road super star Ryan Cavalieri took his first invitational win in heat 2 of round 9. In heat 3 Meen Verjak came back after a rough start to take the win in heat 3. The opening A-main of the Modified class had TQ Gonzalo Cortez taking an easy win from Randy Caster and Lee Passehl while Henrik Heitsch took A1 of the 13.5T class with Kyle Bergstrom in 2nd and Bob Stellflue in 3rd.

Round 10 of the Invitational had Meen Verjak, a strong Marc Rheinard and young Eric Albano taking round wins meaning Marc would pass Ronald in the overall ranking, while Jilles, Andy and Viktor completing the top 5. With two round to go and two drop out rounds things where not locked down for Marc. In Open Modified Gonzalo Cortez sealed the overall championship with a win in A2. Sean Williams and Randy Caster came in 2nd and 3rd respectively. In 13.5T Kyle Bergstrom made things interesting as he held off Hendrik for the win meaning the final A-main would decide the championship.

In heat 1 of the penultimate round of Invitational class racing, Ronald Volker scored a win from Andy Moore and Jilles Groskamp. Paul Lemieux came out successful in heat 2 while Meen Vejrak took the final heat in front of Hara while Rheinard suffered a DNF after hitting the famous “kink” while being in 2nd. With 2 throw outs and 1 round to go Ronald Volker and Marc Rheinard where tie on points now while Meen Verjak moved up to 3rd, leaving Jilles and Andy behind.

2014 Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions – Report

In the Modified class Randy Caster took the win in A-main #3 to finish 2nd overall behind Gonzalo Cortes. Sean Williams came in 3rd overall with two 2nd place finishes. 13.5T had Kyle Bergstrom score another win to take the overall championship from Germany’s Henrik Heitsch who was in a close battle with Kyle but only came in 2nd on the final A to take the overall runner-up spot. Bob Stellflue completed the top 3 result.

2014 Reedy Touring Car Race of Champions – Report

In the Invitational class Vikor Wilck took a win in heat 1 of the final round in front of Andy Moore and Paul Lemieux. Heat 2 and it was Jilles Groskamp who came in 1st followed by Juho Levanen and Takayuki Kono. Heat 3 had Ronald Volker wrapping up the overall Reedy Race Touring Car Race of Champions title with a win from Marc Rheinard and Rick Hohwart. Marc Rheinard grabbed 2nd place overall while Jilles ended the weekend in 3rd position.

Ronald Völker takes Reedy Touring Car Race win

Thanks to Joe Pillars for the report.



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