Saturday in Zolder Part 3 - Lacko pulls one back

17. September 2016Zolder - Saturday’s second race had the impress of two German MAN pilots, Sascha Lenz and René Reinert, even if the eventual winner was a Czech Buggyra Freightliner. A Buggyra had started on pole, but not the one that crossed the line first - that was the one driven by Adam Lacko. The polesitter had been Jiří Forman.
But first things first. Towards the first left-hand curve, a few hundred metres after the start line, Forman and Lenz thundered side-by-side, the Czech on the race line. But then came a right-hander, and there the German’s MAN was already a cab’s length ahead.
Immediately behind them, Kiss and Körber had a coming-together that tossed the German Iveco pilot to the rearward. Kiss, meanwhile, wasted no time chasing after the leading pair.
From the end of this field of 15 Reinert, who’d dropped out of the earlier race debilitated by a speed governor malfunction, stormed up seven places in the first lap - and the Lusatian was only gaining momentum.
At the front, Lenz surprisingly was able to pull away from Forman. Surprisingly, we say, because the two young racers have been quite level on performance in the races they’ve competed in together.
But while Lenz had a relatively smooth run from then on, Forman was hounded by the pack led by Kiss. Everybody waited for the Hungarian to make his move on the Buggyra pilot, but instead he was passed by Lacko, who went on to overtake Forman on the next lap.
But when Hahn, and a little later Reinert and Steffi Halm, also passed Kiss without much effort, it was evident that he was having a problem with his Mercedes. A couple of laps before the finish he retired with steering failure.
Meanwhile Hahn, Reinert, and Halm had forged ahead of Forman, and shortly before the flag Janiec was through too.
The young Czech had fallen from pole to 7th.
Lacko was now hunting Lenz down, and on the penultimate lap he seized the lead. The young MAN pilot wisely chose not to resist the onslaught of the clearly superior Buggyra and risk landing both the trucks in the gravel. Instead, he was quite content to settle for 2nd place.
Hahn finished 3rd ahead of Reinert, who had by now made up 11 places.
Halm, Janiec, and Forman were trailed home by Körber, who had laboured his way back up after the collision with Kiss that dropped him to the end of the field. Lohr and Kursim rounded out the Top 10.
Reinert Adventure (Hahn / Reinert) stood atop the podium for the teams, with Buggyra International (Lacko / Forman) and Lion Truckracing-Lenz (Janiec / Lenz) second and third.
Hahn continues to lead the overall standings with 327 points from Lacko (311), Kiss (169), Reinert (159), Janiec (156), and Halm (154).

Impressions: