Friday, 29.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Sunday in Jarama Part 3 - Janiec jubilates in his first win, Reinert Adventure takes team championship

Sunday in Jarama Part 3 - Janiec jubilates in his first win, Reinert Adventure takes team championship

02. October 2016Jarama - The trucks started assembling in formation on the grid for the final race of the weekend around 20 minutes late. There had been an accident in one of the support races and the guardrails that had borne the brunt needed to be repaired. That took a while.
It had gotten warmer now, and the track surface was at around 40°C, ideal for racing on.
Lohr on pole wasn’t going to have it easy –Lenz would be starting alongside, and Janiec and Kiss right behind her. Janiec’s Lion team in particular had put their souls into “Operation Podium”. After a flawless start, the Frenchman led Lenz by a second on the first lap itself. Directly behind were Reinert, Lohr, and Lacko.
Two seconds behind the leader and one second behind Lenz followed Steffi Halm – one second that would make a world of difference.
Kiss had fallen back to 7th, and Hahn was in 8th, the position he’d started in.
There had been a mighty crash in one of the first few corners, as a result of which some of the trucks fell as much as 2 minutes behind the leaders. If that wasn’t bad enough, Spaniard Garcia Marco lost control over his bonneted Iveco, which dug itself into the gravel in a tight curve, posing a high-risk hazard and bringing out the red flags.
It took an age for the truck to be dragged back out onto the track, and even longer till the rest of the field had regrouped on the grid. It was decided that the race would now comprise two discrete legs, the first consisting of the one lap that had already been run, the second an 11-lap heat, the drivers’ final results a composite of the times from both legs.
It was almost an hour later when the lights turned green at the restart, which took place in the order corresponding to the race positions at the end of the first lap.
Janiec, now in pole, surged into a comfortable lead. Lenz was quickly steamrollered by Reinert and Lacko, and then, over the following laps, passed in steady sequence by Hahn, Kiss, and Halm as well. He managed to keep pace with Halm, and when, two-thirds through the race Kiss came to a stop, the two MANs in blue and orange moved up into 5th and 6th, as if in a platoon.
Ellen Lohr followed in 7th, ahead of Frankie Vojtíšek (MAN). The Czech’s jinx from the Hungaroring continued on his return to racing at Jarama. On Saturday he was plagued by technical glitches, which required his crew to work through the night. And then new problems surfaced in warm-up that prevented him from setting a qualifying time. Starting from the rear-end of the field, he masterfully scythed his way up to 8th place.
Kursim lay in 9th, just ahead of Forman.
At the front Lacko was laying the pressure on second-placed Reinert, who in turn had latched onto Janiec. A further second behind, Hahn was calmly observing developments, wanting by no means to be caught out by a crash between the trucks ahead. So long as he could stay directly behind Lacko, he’d only be one point in deficit – and the gap to Steffi Halm was a yawning 10 seconds.
Janiec scarcely managed to hold onto his lead at the finish, breasting the timing beam three tenths ahead of Reinert. Lacko had closed in to two tenths behind the Lusatian, followed by Hahn a further second adrift.
Steffi Halm was a microtick over a second over the line before Lenz, who was trailed home by Lohr, Vojtíšek, and Kursim. Forman finished a further half-second behind.
With the times from the two part-races to be added for the classification, the finishing order didn’t necessarily signify the final result.
There were no ifs and buts about Janiec’s win; behind him, however, differences of fractions of a second would prove decisive.
As it did in the case of Halm and Lenz. The addition of their times revealed Lenz to have been quicker by nine hundredths. Kursim and Forman also traded places – the Czech had been almost two seconds ahead on the original first lap, and Kursim only half a second quicker in the second part-race.
The rest of the points classification corresponded to the finishing order.
For the first time this weekend it wasn’t Reinert Adventure atop the team podium; instead, Lion Truck Racing-Lenz (Janiec / Lenz) took top honours. However, with its second place, Reinert Adventure (Hahn / Reinert) did clinch the team championship at the expense of Buggyra (Lacko / Forman), which ranked third in this propreantepenultimate race.
Lenz won the Spanish championship class, Lohr was second, and Eduardo Rodrigues third.
For Team Hahn it was mission accomplished – the bantam from Altensteig heads to the season’s final round with his 35-points lead over Lacko intact. He now has 408 points to his fading Czech rival’s 373. Reinert is on 221 and Halm on 203, followed by Kiss (194) and Janiec (190). The battle for third place seems to have been decided too – or has it?

Impressions:

Sunday in Jarama Part 3 - Janiec jubilates in his first win, Reinert Adventure takes team championship
Sunday in Jarama Part 3 - Janiec jubilates in his first win, Reinert Adventure takes team championship
Sunday in Jarama Part 3 - Janiec jubilates in his first win, Reinert Adventure takes team championship
Sunday in Jarama Part 3 - Janiec jubilates in his first win, Reinert Adventure takes team championship
Sunday in Jarama Part 3 - Janiec jubilates in his first win, Reinert Adventure takes team championship