Saturday in Most – Part 3, Second victory of the season for teenager Major

31. August 2013Most - The cloud cover kept increasing gradually but there was still no rain, which no doubt made not only the spectators but also the truck racers glad. Races in the rain have only too often held the door wide open to chance. Even so, Saturday’s second race didn’t exactly finish the way you might have expected. At the start, polesitter Major decisively won the duel for the lead against the far more experienced Vojtíšek. Immediately behind, Bösiger and Oestreich came together heavily, resulting in the former’s immediate retirement — the Swiss having to nurse his mortally wounded Renault onto the grass a few hundred metres ahead. Oestreich meanwhile set off in hot pursuit of the leading duo, followed on his tail by Lacko, Albacete, and Hahn. Major had been able to pull out a gap on Vojtíšek, while Oese clung tenaciously to his rearward. It was, it seemed, only a question of time before the German would pull past the Czech. But that was not to be. Oestreich was called in for a drive-through penalty that dropped him to 14th, promoting Lacko to the direct pursuit of Vojtíšek. At around halfway the Renault pilot finally broke Czech compatriot’s resistance. Major meanwhile had scampered off into the distance, and though Lacko was able to reel him in somewhat, there was nothing he could do to stop the young Hungarian from winning. One by one Albacete and Hahn too got the better of Vojtíšek, so that all the Czech could be content with at the end was fifth place. German race-by-race pilot Gerd Körber (Iveco) fought his way up from 11th to sixth, and Mäkinen took seventh ahead of Reinert. The man from Lausitz had started from the rear of the field following his failure to finish the first race, but managed to make up 11 places by the finish, thrusting Steffi Halm from eighth. Oese eventually took 10th place and the final point. At the prizegiving ceremony the rumour was that penalties were going to be handed out because of the exasperating issue of the track markers. In the event, though, only Vojtíšek got 30 seconds slapped onto his elapsed time, which pushed him down to 10th and consequently promoted Körber, Mäkinen, Reinert, Halm, and Oestreich by one place. But the fact that it took more than two hours to come to this result meant the decision was possibly debatable, even if the race commission reviewed several video sequences from various angles before they put their seal on the official announcement.
Albacete ceded some of his advantage in the driver’s standings although, with 278 points, he still leads Hahn (265), Oestreich (211), Vršecký (195), Kiss (177), Lacko (143), and Bösiger (123). Truck Sport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Oestreich) was the top team in the first race, thus building out its lead in the overall standings. Castrol Team Hahn Racing (Hahn / Mäkinen) and MKR Technology (Lacko / Bösiger) were second and third on the podium. In the second race Hahn finished ahead of Bernau and OXXO Energy Truck Race Team (Kiss / Major).

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