Saturday in Nogaro Part 2
15. June 2013Nogaro - The noon break over, the first race started on time at 2 pm. The cloud cover had cleared, meanwhile, and the sun blazed down mercilessly, pushing the temperature past 25°C. The grid for the race had changed somewhat — René Reinert had to move back five places as a result of the penalty he`d picked up at the last race in Navarra, which meant he was now starting in 14th.
Surviving the first couple of corners on the Circuit Paul Armagnac is crucial; the results of so many races have been decided prematurely at this stage itself. But the drivers all made it through unscathed. Clearly, after the decisions by the race control at Navarra, everybody was on their best behaviour here, and nobody wanted to antagonise. But the inevitable crash came at the end of the long back straight, right at the entry to the sweeping hairpin. Vršecký and Bösiger had traded places at the start, and on the long straight the Buggyra pilot swerved to the right, hoping to get past Bösiger on the inside and regain the fifth place he`d lost to the Swissman. He apparently didn`t notice Lacko alongside, and he forced his compatriot onto the grass. Fighting to recover his line, Lacko in turn hit Bösiger broadside with the left corner of his truck, spinning his MKR teammate around. This held up the field behind them, allowing the leading quartet consisting of Albacete, Hahn, Kiss, and Oestreich, to stretch their gap till the flag. Mäkinen meanwhile had been promoted to fifth, and he maintained that position unharried to the finish.
A few hundred metres after the crash, Lacko`s evidently unsteerable Renault ran straight towards the wall at a sharp left-handed corner.
Bösiger didn`t have it much better either, and he too gave up, so that the entire MKR team was eliminated in next to no time. According to team boss Mario Kress, Lacko had damaged the front axle of his truck, while the rear axle on Bösiger`s was a writeoff. The repair effort is going to be so strenuous that the MKRs are clearly out of the reckoning for the rest of today.
The race result practically thus decided, all that was left was the keen, if rather subdued, battle for positions six and below. For a long while Janiec led the pack of pursuers till he was overtaken by Vršecký three laps before the flag. The Spanish MAN pilot Javier Mariezcurrena finished eighth, which should have put him in pole for the following handicap race. The Hungarian Benedek Major (MAN) and Reinert were the last two to finish in the points.
Once again the final result was delayed pending deliberations by the race commission. Then, shortly before the start of the second race it was announced that Vršecký and Reinert had been penalised 30 seconds each, the former because of his role in the crash and the latter for having overtaken under yellow flags. This not only dumped both of them out of the points, in favour of Frenchman Jeremy Robineau (MAN) and the Belgian Jean-Pierre Blaise (Renault), but also meant that they would start far back down the field, Vršecký in 11th and Reinert, indeed, in 14th.
So pole fell to the Hungarian youngster Major, with consequences nobody could have dreamed of. After all, what chance did the 16-year-old novice have against old warhorse Mariezcurrena, with whom he now shared the front row? In the event, though, Major not only survived the treacherous curves shortly after the start with not so much as a scratch; he also deftly parried the Spaniard`s attacks on the long back straight. And when, approaching the same 180° curve where we`d had that accident in the earlier race, Mariezcurrena thought to overtake on the outside, he made the mistake of drifting a wee bit too far to the outer edge of the track, not only allowing Major to bolt but also making way for the rest of the pack to sweep past.
Now Major had Janiec in hot pursuit, but the rookie inexorably – and incredibly – extended his lead to win in only his third truckrace weekend. Janiec, meanwhile, was battling for all he was worth to defend his position, holding up the pack of nominally quicker trucks that followed him nose-to-tail. The Frenchman was thus able to register a much-celebrated second-place finish in front of his countrymen, ahead of Oestreich. The rest of the points positions went to Kiss, Albacete, Hahn, Mariezcurrena, Mäkinen, Vršecký, and Blaise in that order.
Champion Hahn continues to top the driver`s standings with 100 points, ahead of Albacete (90), Oestreich (82), Vršecký (77), Kiss (65), Mäkinen (61), Lacko (58), and Bösiger (40). Truck Sport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Oestreich) was the top team in the first race, ahead of Castrol Team Hahn Racing (Hahn / Mäkinen) and OXXO Energy Truck Race Team (Kiss / Major). OXXO was on top in the second race, followed by Bernau and Team Blaise Janiec (Janiec / Blaise).
Supported by Meritor Translation: Eliot Lobo
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