Rheinard makes history after controversial conclusion to ISTC Worlds in Bangkok
Xray’s Marc Rheinard has today made Electric Touring Car history in Bangkok, the German securing a record fourth IFMAR World Championship title 22-years after he won on his ISTC debut in Kissimmee, USA, however the 13th running of the championships may unfortunately be better remembered as controversial rather than history making. With World Championship wins meant to be a time to celebrate the best performances in our sport and the hard work of drivers & their teams, those celebrations today at Huge RC Circuit were certainly muted after contact decided the title just seconds into A3. While Rheinard would serve a Stop & Go penalty for his contact with the defending Champion Bruno Coelho on the opening lap, the Infinity driver’s race was over on the spot, up front Orlowski went on to take the win. At the end of the race however there was no trophy presented to the German on the drivers stand as has become tradition at World Championships. Instead, with a definite air of tension in the pits as money was put down to make official protests and officials were called over the PA to meetings, we waited on the result to be made official, the energy of this once every two year moment draining away with every passing minute. While everyone gave their opinion, more in a better position than others to do so, there was a general overall feeling of disappointment at how the race had just played out, many having predicted it was never going to be a clean race after the A2 incident. On declaring the race official, update results produced an Xray 1-2 as World’s Final debutant Jin Sawada, who put in an impressive performance all week, was promoted to second. Having originally been handed a 5-second penalty for his A2 contact with Top Qualifier Michal Orlowski, Coelho was issued with a 1-lap penalty as per the official rules when contact happens within the final 2-laps of the race. The original decision made causing friction within IFMAR. Dropping the Infinity driver from 2nd to 9th overall, Orlowski would claim the final step on the podium just ahead of Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain and Buggy World Champion David Ronnefalk. With Rheinard’s victory reinstating him as the category’s GOAT, while this should be a massive cause for celebration and the great event put on by one of the categories own former Champions Surikarn Chaidajsuriya who owns Huge RC Circuit, today’s racing puts Electric Touring Car in the spotlight but not in a positive way with even Rheinard advocating rule changes are needed for fairer racing. Yes we have had controversy in the past and it is how hard fought World Championships are that make them so coveted & special but no matter what your views on how today played out nothing beats a good clean battle in deciding who gets to call themselves Champion of the World for the next two years.
