Kris Richard heads to Magny-Cours with a slender lead in the standings
Rikli Motorsport’s Kris Richard heads to the penultimate round of the European Touring Car Cup this weekend with a small two-point lead over Petr Fulín in the drivers’ standings, which is now turning out to be a two horse race between the young Swiss Honda driver and the Czech with the SEAT.
Although mathematically speaking, with 46 points remaining, any of the top six are still theoretically in the hunt for the Super 2000 Trophy title open to TCN2 specification cars, Richard and Fulín’s 25 and 23 point lead over Peter Rikli, only a disastrous weekend for the two front runners will stop the championship being in reality a fight between them.
Richard won the second race at the double points event at Vila Real two weeks ago, despite a late challenge from the Portuguese wild card entry Manuel Pedro Fernandes, in a weekend which looked set to trouble the Honda Civics.
“After the first race I didn’t think I could finish the second race in first position,” said Richard to TouringCarTimes. “I was very lucky at the start (of Race 2), I was able to overtake the S1600 cars very fast. I built a big gap and didn’t see any TCR cars in my background, but then in the last two laps the Portuguese guy closed up really fast, if there had been one or two laps more I’d have been in trouble.”
The Honda Civic TCRs seemed to struggle more compared to the SEAT León TCRs of their competition in Portugal, but the 21-year-old says track time and the championship success ballast was the main factor.
“I have a lot of weight in the car which I think was a big point, and the second thing was I only did one free practice due to problems with the engine, so I had less track time than I really needed in Vila Real to be quick,” he explained.
Now with a two point lead over ETCC stalwart Petr Fulín, who will be fresh from a points-scoring stint last weekend in Sochi for Mulsanne Racing in the TCR International Series, the Swiss driver says he’s not watching the drivers’ title yet.
“I never look at the points, I just drive,” he said. “I’m taking it race-by-race, the points are only important after the last race of the season.”
ETCC Magny-Cours Entry List
No – Driver – Team – Car – Class
2 – Pierre-Etienne Chaumat – JSB Competition – SEAT León Cup Racer – TCN2
8 – Norbert Nagy – Zengo Motorsport – SEAT León Cup Racer – TCN2
11 – Kris Richard – Rikli Motorsport – Honda Civic TCR – TCN2
12 – Peter RIkli – Rikli Motorsport – Honda Civic TCR – TCN2
14 – Igor Stefanovski – Lema Racing – SEAT León TCR – TCN2
17 – Mladen Lalusic – ASK Lein Racing – SEAT León TCR – TCN2
19 – Christjohannes Schreiber – Krenek Motorsport – SEAT León TCR – TCN2
22 – Petr Fulín – Krenek Motorsport – SEAT León TCR – TCN2
31 – Milovan Vesnic – ASK Lein Racing – SEAT León TCR – TCN2
37 – Fabio Mota – Lema Racing – SEAT León TCR – TCN2
81 – Niklas Mackschin – Ravenol Motorsport – Ford Fiesta 1.6 16v – S1600
82 – Ksenia Niks – Ravenol Motorsport – Ford Fiesta 1.6 16v – S1600
83 – Daniel Niemann – Ravenol Motorsport – Ford Fiesta 1.6 16v – S1600
85 – Tomas Koreny – Ravenol Motorsport – Ford Fiesta 1.6 16v – S1600
86 – Andreas Rinke – ETH Tuning – Peugeot 207 Sport – S1600
88 – Kevin Hilgenhövel – ETH Tuning – Peugeot 207 Sport – S1600
ETCC Magny-Cours Timetable
Friday 8th July
13:30 – Testing
Saturday 9th July
09:25 – Free Practice
15:00 – Qualifying
Sunday 10th July
10:50 – Race 1
12:35 – Race 2
