Jochen Hahn gets down to Business

08. April 2009Germany’s most popular truck racer has a busy schedule for the coming season, his second one with MAN. At an early stage the Team Hahn Racing began to construct a completely new truck. The truck they had last year was sold to the Oxxo Team from Hungary with whom the Swabians form a sort of co-operation partnership at present. And so both teams worked together in the Hahn repair shop constructing their trucks. Prior to that, last year’s MAN had been completely stripped down and overhauled. And the Hungarian truck benefitted from the technical innovations of the new one. Last week the two trucks for the first time had to “show their colours”. For that purpose Jochen Hahn found a new test track.
The Circuit de Chenevières is situated near Nancy, about 180 km from Altensteig. On an old airport there were built race and test tracks. The drivers of one of the biggest French forwarding agencies regularly do some safety training there, reasons enough for Hahn to go in for a closer look – and he was impressed. Together with the Oxxo Team the two pitch-black MAN RaceTrucks were taken to France. The tests showed, however, that not all the innovations were actually improvements, but “to reveal those facts, that’s what tests are done for” as Hahn said in a short statement. Apart from that, they are highly pleased with the new truck, and they were already a lot more successful than last year at that time. Equally pleased with his RaceTruck was Balazs Szobi; with every lap he did he managed to better his times.
The first real challenge and comparison will begin in a week and a half, when all the MAN teams meet for the obligatory testing days in Albacete. For years this event took place in Nogaro. But since the circuit in Southern France meets the highest standards, it is nearly always fully booked. That’s why the truck racers were too late, and have now to switch to the track on the plateau of La Mancha.