Navarra This And That
12. June 2014Since 2005 the first weekend of June has been reserved for the second Spanish race — that is, the one besides the traditional fixture on the Circuito de Jarama in October. For most of these years the circus has congregated in Albacete; two years ago the event was shifted to Jarama at short notice, and now for the last two years it’s been held at the Circuito de Navarra as the second round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship.
The rather bleak landscape some 500 metres above mean sea level isn’t the most propitious for agriculture, which predominates economic activity in the area, and even the truck racers had to get to grips with vastly different conditions after the holiday atmosphere in Misano on Italy’s Adriatic coast. Last year it was extraordinarily windy here. This time, at least no tents were blown over. A significant number of concrete-filled tyres with hooks had been placed all around the paddock, and these were of much help in keeping things grounded — at least the most important things. In the worst cases the only objects that were blown down were stools and beach flags. And several hats and caps were blown off. Headgear was an absolute must here for protection against the merciless sun, which blazed down out of clear blue skies. The temperatures were 30° plus in the shade, and the track was measured at up to 57°.
But the hottest figures of the weekend really were the points tallies the two MAN pilots Norbert Kiss (HUN) and Antonio Albacete (ESP) came away from Navarra with. The Hungarian now leads the overall standings, a single point ahead of the Spaniard. Defending champ Jochen Hahn was set back after he drew a blank in the first race owing to a generator failure. The German MAN driver came to Navarra as the championship leader, but now lies 18 points adrift in third place. On the other hand, going by the old truck racing adage to the effect that everyone gets at least one (knock) in a season, Team Hahn Racing will be hoping that theirs is now past, because the tough competition this year will make it extremely tough to recover.
On a few occasions one driver was able to go very much quicker than the rest of the field in qualifying or in the SuperPole probably, which probably has more to do with him having found the perfect conditions for that lap. In the races, however, the differences were relatively negligible.
Czechs David Vršecký and Adam Lacko in their Buggyra Freightliners were cocks of the walk in each day’s second races, collecting three podium places in all. But since these are only good for half the number of points, their performances don’t reflect in the overall standings.
Steffi Halm was less bothered about which races she took her points in. The young German gave herself a wonderful birthday present by winning more points at Pentecost weekend in Navarra than in all her three years in the FIA ETRC so far — even after she’d had to abandon her mortally wounded MAN eight laps into the final race.
As much as Steffi was delighted at her results, altogether less delightful was the attendance at the weekend. Sure, many other race series would have been happy with 12,000-odd fans. But given that there were almost three times as many spectators at the FIA ETRC première here last year, there was no way you could be happy with this year’s numbers.
There’s been a change though — the circuit has changed hands since last year’s fixture, even most of the staff is new, and preparations for the event have been anything but optimal.
Impressions:
