Cavalieri, Matsukura & Volker win opening RROC encounters

The opening round of racing at the Reedy Race of Champions produced pretty straight forward wins for Ryan Cavalieri, Naoto Matsukura and Ronald Volker, with only World Champion Matsukura forced to work for his win. Starting the opening race of the 19th running of the iconic event from 3rd on the grid, early patience from Cavalieri would pay with mistakes from pole sitter Rick Hohwart and early leader Eric Albano on the same lap handed the Associated driver the lead. Hohwart would get second followed by Reedy Race debutant Viljami Kutvonen who came through from 6th on the grid. Race 2 would prove to be the most entertaining of the 3 as a recovering Chrstopher Krapp put in a huge charge in the final minute to catch his Tamiya team-mate Matsukura who probably wouldn’t have held off the German had the race gone an extra lap. Having started on pole Andrew Hardman would complete the Top 3. The most heavily loaded of the races, Race 3 would see reigning champion Marc Rheinard and Volker go head to head. Volker had the advantage of starting from pole and dominated the race while contact at the start from P4 left Rheinard at the back. The Tamiya driver would recover to take a distant 2nd with team-mate Akio Sobue 3rd.

Continue reading this report here our view our complete event coverage here.