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| SUMMERFIELD WINS THREE-PART MITTELRHEIN CUP RACE |
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| 15th July, 2012 |
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.Those race fans who got up early enough to watch Sunday’s opening Mittelrhein Cup race (starting at 08-40) certainly got value for money in terms of the number of race starts and exciting on-track action.
The competitors were lucky enough to have a completely dry circuit for this event but some of them still seemed determined to push their trucks to the limit (and beyond) – which resulted in perhaps too much excitement at times.
Saturday race winner Rene Reinhert was unable to hold off the rapid British driver Mat Summerfield and this pair appeared to be pulling clear of the pack when red flags brought the race to a premature stop for the first time. The cause was the Ford of John Powell grinding to a halt with brake trouble – close to the racing line, a position which officials decided was too dangerous.
The trucks reformed on the starting grid – and soon start number 2 was underway – with Summerfield and Reinert again setting the early pace while fellow MAN drivers Richard Collett and Steve Thomas were fighting for third with the orange Mercedes of Sascha Lenz.
Further down the field there was another fierce battle developing between the two front runners in Division 2 of the Delphi British Championship – Dave Smith and Oly Janes.
Smith had taken his Foden to a comfortable class win in the Saturday race – but clearly Janes was in a more determined mood today with his Scania looking to be much more competitive.
The two trucks swopped paintwork at least twice on the opening lap… but the battle between the pair of young English drivers finally ended in tears as Janes slid off and hit the barriers, forcing a second red flag!
In the third ‘race’ the pair of orange Mercedes piloted by Sascha and Heinz-Werner Lenz were looking seriously threatening at the start and Summerfield certainly had his hands full to stay with the two local drivers. But with the official overall classification being decided on the total times of the three parts of the disrupted race Summerfield was actually a comfortable winner by 6.527s with Sascha Lenz in the runner-up spot ahead of Reinert.
Richard Collett (4th overall) got his turn on the podium – the Yorkshireman claiming the third place trophy for the BTRA Championship registered drivers in Division 1, where he joined Summerfield and Lenz. Dave Smith took the honours in Division 2 of the BTRA series – ahead of Dutch duo Marko Donk (Volvo) and Frans Smit (Scania).
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