Saturday at the Nürburgring Part 2 – Steffi Halm holds her nerve to earn a popular win

02. July 2016Nürburgring - Nobody can remember when last there was such a long gap between first and second races, but with such surprisingly good weather – despite forecasts to the contrary, – the drivers used the time for PR engagements or to oblige autograph-seeking fans. That took a while. Remember, the paddock was so full that it was difficult to make one’s way through.
Before the race could start, there was still the driver presentation and the grid walk for the spectators, an opportunity no fan would pass over. Where else does one have the possibility to saunter onto the grid and get up close to the drivers like the VIPs and celebs do?
Even when the sky darkened off and on, the weather held up for the entire duration of the race - and that itself was exceptionally long.
It began with polesitter Sascha Lenz leading into the Mercedes Arena, as the field piled on in the sequence of corners. Too many trucks and not enough track, something had to give. And it did, at the end of the upgrade. It looked like Lacko was trying to barge through where there was nearly no room to. His Buggyra Freightliner hit Reinert’s MAN in the side, lifting the blue truck into the air and setting off a chain reaction.
While Lacko managed to drive on without difficulty, his truck cosmetically battered but structurally undamaged, a number of trucks found themselves scattered around facing every direction. The track was strewn with broken bodywork.
Reinert’s truck was clearly the most severely hit, but even Hahn’s MAN was smoking as it continued and Frenchman Labadie’s yellow Lion MAN was refusing to move. There was no option but for race control to bring out the red flags.
Labadie did somehow manage to get his truck to roll again, to cheers from the packed stands, but the track still needed to be cleaned up. That caused a 25 minute delay, which meant the restart finally took place when the original race should have finished. The damages seen to, the trucks were good to race even if they didn’t quite look the part.
Reinert had taken a precautionary trip into the pits, requiring him to start from pit lane when the entire field had passed.
The second start wasn’t touch and go, but fascinating to watch nevertheless.
Once again Sascha Lenz made it to the first corner in front, but Steffi Halm shot up behind him at breathtaking pace, taking advantage of the empty grid slot ahead of her that Reinert had earlier occupied.
Halm was soon in the lead, and somewhat later Kiss too had overtaken Lenz and finally Hahn as well, whose truck was running like nobody’s business. But that wasn’t the end of the young Lenz’s travails. A few laps before the finish he collided with his English MAN colleague Ryan Smith and had to park his orange truck on a grassy verge.
Hahn meanwhile had overtaken Kiss and, spearheaded by winner Steffi Halm and separated by a second each, the trio hurtled to glory. At some remove, and completely unchallenged, Lacko crossed the line in 4th.
Reinert drove like a man possessed, making up 15 places to finish on Janiec’s tail in 6th, ahead of Altenstrasser, Smith, Lohr, and Czech Frankie Vojtíšek (MAN), who crossed the line in a cluster within a span of a few seconds.
WOW! Women On Wheels (Lohr / Halm) was the top-scoring team ahead of Reinert Adventure (Hahn / Reinert) and tankpool24 (Kiss / Kursim).
Hahn (173 points) has now taken over the lead in the championship from Lacko (168). They are followed by Reinert (104), Janiec (88), Kiss (79), and Halm (76).

Impressions: