Sunday in Le Mans Part 3 – Steffi Halm beats Ellen Lohr in season finale

09. October 2016Le Mans - For Shane Brereton it was an entirely novel experience, starting a race in the FIA ETRC from pole. Truck racing legend Steve Parrish, the winningest truck racer of all time with five titles to his name, wished his compatriot all success before he took off on the formation lap, but that wasn’t of much help.
At the start the MAN pilot couldn’t accelerate fast enough; somewhat later he tangled with a few other trucks and picked up a puncture in his right rear outer tyre. A race truck can travel on three adequately inflated rear tyres, although not as quickly. The Englishman nevertheless managed to make it home in 10th and collected one point.
At the front it was two ladies playing top and second banana – Ellen Lohr and Steffi Halm, who together comprise the WOW! Women On Wheels team. Steffi was on her best behaviour behind Ellen, even when it looked like she might make so bold as to overtake.
Lurking right behind was René Reinert, but he wasn’t going to attack Steffi Halm – after all, the young lady is integral to Reinert Racing. But if either of, or both, the ladies should make a mistake, the Lusatian wanted to be in a position to capitalise immediately.
Stuck to the rear of Reinert’s MAN-in-blue were Lacko, who really had no need to look into his rear-view mirrors, and Jochen Hahn. The newly crowned champion kept advancing to a few millimetres of the Buggyra’s rear, but that was primarily for the spectators’ benefit. Neither Hahn nor, indeed, Lacko attempted any hard assault.
Körber completed the sextet.
Some way further off Sascha Lenz followed, having started from the rear of the field as a consequence of his failure to finish the earlier race.
But he diligently pressed on, the goal being to keep Körber’s Iveco within sight. The past master was the only potential challenger for his 7th place in the standings, but he’d need to finish six places ahead of Lenz. So all the MAN pilot needed to do was not let the Iveco out of his sight.
Forman was running 8th ahead of Vojtíšek and Brereton.
This is the order in which the field had settled, and nobody expected anything to change. But two laps before the finish Lohr drifted wide, and Halm – who’s a racer first and foremost – didn’t hesitate to spring into the opening. A few moments later she was clear into the lead.
The two ladies had traded places entirely unexpectedly.
At the end it was somewhat annoying to see the arrangement of the national flags behind this all-German podium, with the Monégasque flag raised for Ellen Lohr. It’s true that Lohr has for many years raced with a super licence issued by the small city-state on the French Riviera, but she’s still very much a German citizen.
For the first time this weekend Reinert Adventure had to make way for another squad on the top step of the team podium. WOW! Women On Wheels (Lohr / Halm) was the winner this time and Buggyra International (Lacko / Forman) was third.
Hahn concludes a successful season with a whopping 456 points, followed by Lacko (400), Reinert (252), Halm (229), Kiss (216), Janiec (196), Lenz (124), Körber (118), Lohr (93), and Forman.

Impressions: