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Misano This And That

Misano This And That

03. June 2016The second round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship at the Misano World Circuit wasn’t entirely the summertime gala that the truck racers have come to expect.
At any rate, at least since last year, we know summer in Misano is no longer a guarantee of sunshine.
The Saturday was just what everyone had hoped for. The fine racing weather continued till Sunday mid-morning; the afternoon brought with it a storm and heavy showers. But if after Spielberg you imagined that a dry track meant Advantage Hahn, and rain Advantage Lacko, you’d have to wonder.
Lacko did win one race in the wet, but he also won both races run on a dry track. Hahn, meanwhile, won one race in the wet. And so, just as the Czech found an ideal setup for the regular conditions, Hahn’s hit off perfectly in the wet. In Spielberg the MAN pilot from Altensteig was sliding all over behind Lacko, whose truck ran as if on rails; in the rainy race here he shadowed Lacko’s Buggyra Freightliner from start to finish. What worked in Lacko’s favour was simply that he’d started on pole.
And at the last race of the weekend, when the going was anything but optimal, Hahn was actually so dominant that there’s just no doubt now that the thrice champ’s MAN is no fair-weather flyer.
What’s also clearly emerged is that Hahn and Lacko are the hottest contenders for the title.
The third force that presented itself in Spielberg was Hahn’s Reinert Adventure teammate René Reinert, and even if at first glance the results seem to suggest otherwise, the fact was established in Misano.
In qualifying on Sunday the German MAN pilot’s prospects were scuppered by a broken steering shaft. Had he been spared that misfortune, another podium finish was as good as certain. It was no less impressive how Reinert pressed ahead from last place on the grid of 16 trucks to finish 6th.
But the Lusatian now has serious competition in his protégée Steffi Halm, who now drives for Reinert Racing. And so the two top dogs have two dogged pursuers - Hahn from within his own ranks, because the trucks that both Reinert and Halm drive are in fact handiworks of the House of Hahn.
And there’s Anthony Janiec, another MAN pilot who’s closest to latching onto the top four. The Frenchman has had varied results, but consistently strong showings in the wet. And woe betide the driver of any truck that starts behind Janiec’s in the second race of the day, regardless of how much more powerful that truck may be.
That was the experience not only of Reinert but also of his compatriot Gerd Körber, whose chagrin at failing to subdue the Frenchman is a more chronic disposition. Quite apart from that sentiment, Körber and his Schwabentruck team don’t appear to be happy at all with the new Iveco. What they needed was actually many more test laps; the two 20-minute free practice sessions on the race weekend are far from adequate for an all-new race truck.
Even Norbert Kiss needs more time to test, even if he surprised everybody in Misano. That the Hungarian would finish on the podium in just his second race weekend in the tankpool24 Mercedes was something even the most hardcore optimists in the MB Motorsport team hadn’t imagined possible. What was conspicuous – in Spielberg too – is just how much Kiss was able to kick up his pace from the free practice till qualifying. The Merc racetruck seems to have immense potential just waiting to be unleashed.
The decorated trucks have a long tradition here in Misano, and this time too they were the cynosure on Saturday evening.

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Misano This And That
Misano This And That
Misano This And That
Misano This And That