Sunday at the Hungaroring Part 3 – Lacko finishes third, wins the race

28. August 2016Hungaroring - Before the final race of the weekend Gerd Körber was in for a rather unpleasant surprise. His Schwabentruck Iveco had been caught exceeding the speed limit and Körber was given a (retroactive) 10 second penalty, which sent him tumbling down the table from 4th to 8th.
This promoted Lohr, Lenz, Smith, and Forman by one place each in the classification. It also meant that Körber was now on pole instead of Forman - an opportunity the Iveco standard-bearer was determined to make the most of.
At the start both he and Smith Left the young Czech scrambling in their wake, but Forman handed in a performance of such maturity as you’d never dream possible by a newcomer.
It’s also likely that strict censure by the FIA race director yesterday evening after an uncommonly scrappy second race had made the racers more cautious in their attacks.
Be that as it may, Forman’s pursuers just couldn’t find a way past him. While Körber and Smith built out their lead, a pile-up was developing behind his Buggyra not unlike the train behind Vojtíšek yesterday.
First Ellen Lohr tried for two laps to break the Czech’s resistance, but made no headway. Then she herself was passed by Lacko, who moved ahead of his teammate as well in one fell swoop. The rest of the field had to stay put behind the Buggyra Fatfox for two more laps till Janiec forced his way ahead. Three laps before the flag, home hero Kiss succeeded in his attempt. Hahn, who was hot on the Hungarian’s heels, hoped he too might squeeze through in Kiss’s draft but no, the gap closed on him in an instant.
Out in front Körber and Smith had made this a two-horse race, the German crossing the finish line half a second ahead. Lacko trailed them home in third.
Behind them, meanwhile, Janiec and Kiss were able to pull away from Forman to finish 4th and 5th. The Czech was tailed all the way to the flag by a knotty quartet of Hahn, Lohr, Lenz, and Kursim spread only three seconds apart.
Halm was dogged by disappointment again, after steering failure had forced her to retire from the earlier race. Struggling with a punctured right front tyre a few laps before the finish, she slowed dramatically and in the final left-hand bend a few hundred metres before the line, what was left of her tyre worked itself clean off its rim. The blue MAN careened into the runoff towards the tyre barrier and the Armco, though Halm succeeded in wrestling it around just in time. Then she was back on track, manoeuvring without one steering tyre to a 12th-place finish.
Following the podium ceremony, a few pilots were issued summons to report to race control, among them the top two finishers Körber and Smith.
The original classification was scrapped. Körber, Smith, and Lohr were each awarded 30 second penalties for overspeeding on the approach to the start lights (refer to our 17 August 2016 article
Overspeeding at race start), handing the race win to
Lacko ahead of Janiec, Kiss, Forman, Hahn, Lenz, Kursim, Körber, Smith, and Kleinnagelvoort.
Lohr slid to 12th behind Halm.
Buggyra International (Lacko / Forman) was followed in the team classification by Lion Truck Racing-Lenz (Janiec / Lenz) and tankpool24 (Kiss / Kursim).
Hahn now heads to the Czech Truck Prix next weekend with a 13-point lead over Lacko (235). Kiss is on 144, followed by Janiec (125), Reinert (118), and Halm (104).

Impressions: