Riener's IFR Debut Nets Victory
press release
On his debut with the Intrepid Force Rotax team last weekend, junior driver Stefan Riener claimed race honours at round 4 of the 2010 German-Austrian Rotax Max Challenge at the Ampfing circuit in the Bavaria region of Germany. The 15-year old Austrian has been competing as part of the official Intrepid factory Junior Team line-up this season in the KF3 class, but did race internationally in the Rotax category last year.
Above: Stefan Riener
pic - Jenni Wade
It was the team’s other Stefan – Stefan Locsmandi, who almost secured pole position in junior qualifying, narrowly missing out on the inside row privilege on the start grid for the pre-final. He ended up dropping to 5th in the first race then had a disappointing end to his RMC campaign when a technical problem failed to let him contest the final just as the race got underway. His new team-mate, Riener, came from row 3 to cross the line not far ahead of Locsmandi in the pre-final, setting the fastest overall lap. He moved into the lead early in the final and never looked like losing it throughout the 17 laps. It was a case of “bitter-sweet” for the IFR Stefans, but nevertheless, they were clearly each worthy of a podium finish in the Junior World class.
Above: Junior MAX podium, IFR's Stefan Riener on top
pic - Jenni Wade
Above: Stefan Locsmandi
pic - Jenni Wade
It proved to be a very satisfying weekend for the Senior Max IFR team members Ferenc Kancsár and Niki Laa, who both featured at the prizegiving ceremony Sunday. Kancsár qualified third quickest and claimed P2 in the pre-final, before an unsuccessful attempt at securing the win from VPD Germany’s leading local senior and former IFR driver Maxi Gunkel. It was a brilliant battle to the chequered flag once again, which was the case at the opening round back in April, however, it was Kancsár who took the trophy on that occasion.
Less than 2-tenths separated the Salzburg-based team’s seniors in the official timed practice, but Laa had to be satisfied with ranking 9 in the field of 20 entries at Ampfing. He drove a great race to not only have the best lap of the pre-final, but work his way up to a credible 5th place. In the end, Laa managed to savour one more position as the laps unfolded, to take a well-earned 4th and add to his strong points standing in the championship now with three rounds remaining. He’s currently a very close 3rd with only a few points from leading the series, while Kancsár is 5th.
The Mini Max saw 18 youngsters competing at the German meeting, with IFR having two entries for the first time in the class that continues to grow in numbers. Racing for the first time at Ampfing, Florian Janits almost grabbed pole, but it was a superb effort to combine with his record of two pole positions from a total of four races in 2010. He assumed the lead briefly on lap 1 of the pre-final, but was unable to hang onto it and took 2nd place. His team mate Felix Kotyk was just outside the top 10 in the qualifying, but together with Janits, was amongst the quickest on track in the Mini Max racing. In the final, the race for Janits ended on lap 6 when he tried to make a move up the inside of another kart. It was also not the desired result for Kotyk to end the meeting when he was unable to make up more positions over the course of the race, but he was quite pleased with having the 3rd best lap in such a closely matched field.
As the team now prepares for the upcoming “home round” of the Rotax Euro Challenge in Austria in just over a week from now, they’ll turn their focus on the next edition of the RMC immediately following this with team testing at the Wackersdorf track for round 5 on July 8.
Intrepid Force Rotax news and updates can be found on the team’s official website – www.intrepidforcerotax.com and also at www.racetogetthere.com for all VPD Racing news
Above: Florian Janits
pic - Jenni Wade
Above: Senior podium
pic - Jenni Wade
