First tests of the season in Most

07. April 2016The truck racers met in Most this week for the first serious tests of the season. The weather here at this time of year was in the past sometimes characterised by heavy rain, snow, and hefty squalls. This time there was none of those extremes. Instead, alternate spells of brilliant sunshine and some rain provided just those facets of the Czech spring that the truck racers really covet at a test session of this kind.
Hahn Racing, Reinert Racing, Team Schwabentruck, and Buggyra International Racing Systems, four of the top teams in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, took part with a total of six race trucks.
The Buggyra team used the occasion to show off their new design for 2016.
From a technical perspective, we don’t think any truck was running the spec it will at the season-opener in Spielberg, Austria, in three weeks - that’s why the trucks were being tested in the first place, Jochen Hahn, one of those who had initiated this exercise, pointed out.
And so, in addition to the MAN pilots Hahn and René Reinert, the two Schwabentruck Iveco teammates Gerd Körber and Markus Altenstrasser, and the Buggyra Freightliner crew consisting of Adam Lacko and David Vršecký’s successor Jiri Forman, all used every available minute available to rack up mileage.
The scheduling system at Autodrom Most is perfect for tests of this nature - half-hour spells on the track alternating with mandatory pit-ins while other users are allowed out.
In those intense 30 minutes in the pits settings are adjusted, tyres changed, the trucks tanked up with water and diesel, and performance data analysed.
Of course everyone was holding their cards very close to their chests. To be fair, everybody was fully absorbed with their own vehicles, not just during testing but, indeed, till late in the night.
Even so, there was nobody who wasn’t satisfied at the conclusion of the session.

Impressions: