Saturday in Jarama Part 3 – One-two for Buggyra

03. October 2015Jarama - It all looked so easy, the way Lacko took the lead from polesitter Vršecký in Saturday’s second race. But what was surprising was how quickly he was able to stretch that lead to win unchallenged, a whopping 19 seconds ahead. His teammate, by contrast, was under permanent pressure. In the early laps it was Steffi Halm that kept trying to overtake the Czech past master, then her team boss Reinert. Towards the close Vršecký was set on by new twice-champion Kiss, who’d shot up to the front from eighth on the grid.
The Hungarian, it appeared, was on the verge of breaking Vršecký’s resistance when the finish line mercifully appeared, allowing the Czech to salvage his second place by a mere four-tenths.
A massive jam had built up behind the Buggyra pilot, and in the crush positions were exchanged constantly. Albacete in particular was determined to put on a good show for his fans.
At the end of the first lap the Spaniard had dropped a place to 8th, then battled for four laps to overcome Janiec before running into the pileup behind Vršecký. Halm was able to resist the Spaniard’s advances for only so long, but overcoming Hahn was a lost cause. When Hahn followed Kiss past Reinert, Albacete was right up behind the blue MAN’s rear. To the jubilation of the crowds he then dispatched the Lusatian, but Reinert wasn’t willing to accept the slight. One lap later he was back with his riposte, recapturing 5th place from the Spaniard. But he wasn’t able to hold onto it for more than a lap, Albacete grabbing it back within sight of the finish.
And so the podium went to Lacko, Vršecký, and Kiss; Hahn was left with a thankless 4th place. Reinert and Halm followed Albacete home closely in 6th and 7th.
Not only was this sextet very closely bunched together throughout the race; at the finish too, only 5 seconds separated the second-placed finisher from the seventh.
Janiec didn’t progress beyond 8th. He finished ahead of Lenz and Lohr.
Buggyra (Vršecký / Lacko) was the top team this time, ahead of Oxxo-Lion (Kiss / Janiec) and Reinert Adventure (Hahn / Reinert).
The newly crowned champion Kiss now leads the standings with 540 points from Hahn (381), Lacko (380), Vršecký (351), Albacete (311), and Reinert (212).
André Kursim was a luckless stiff of the weekend, together with his tankpool24 team. Roland Rehfeld hasn’t been able to race here because of preoccupation owing to an illness in his family, and Kursim was hit at the start of qualifying with turbo damage, with graver consequences than the team had earlier reckoned with. A hurried repair in between races just wasn’t possible.

Impressions: