Saturday at the Slovakiaring Part 3 – Albacete takes first win of the season
15. July 2017Slovakiaring - While a few drops had fallen at the start of Race 1, prompting fears of rain, the sun clearly won out this time. The sun also smiled on Truck Sport Lutz Bernau, which won again with its winningest driver Antonio Albacete after a drought in 2016.
Polesitter Körber had not a good start, allowing Albacete and Steffi Halm to seize the lead. Lap after lap the MAN duo extended their advantage over the rest of the pack, while Körber in 3rd was beset by Lacko, Hahn, and Kiss till mid-race, when the three pursuers finally pushed past, one after the other. The finishing order was as good as decided. Albacete and Halm held an unassailable lead; the only open questions were whether the German would somehow manage to overtake the Spaniard, and whether Hahn and Kiss could still snatch 3rd from Lacko. In the event the order remained as it was, Körber finishing 6th ahead of Vršecký and Lenz.
Kursim and his Mercedes had a miserable first lap. The young German, having gotten off to a good start from the first row, was among the leaders. But then a competitor crashed into the rear of his Mercedes, dropping the tankpool24 pilot to 10th. The smoke from his battered truck visible from a distance – portions of the damaged chassis cutting into a rear tyre on the right-hand corners, – he fought his way back up past Faas into 9th, which would have given him 1st place in the Promoter’s Cup. But on the 6th lap he was ordered by race control into pit lane. The team removed the offending chassis parts and the Mercedes went on its way smokefree, but could make it no further than half a lap. In one of the sweeping left-handed curves that had unsettled so many of the far more experienced drivers in free practice, the Mercedes shot straight ahead through the gravel, hit the tyre barrier with its left rear, and dug in. This allowed Faas to inherit 9th place ahead of Vojtíšek.
Kiss later collected a 10 second penalty for overspeeding that tossed him to 8th, allowing Körber, Vršecký, and Lenz to each move up a place in the classification.
Reinert Adventure (Halm / Lenz) was the top team, followed onto the podium by Buggyra Racing 1969 (Vršecký / Lacko) and „Die Bullen von Iveco Magirus“ (Hahn / Körber).
Faas took first prize in the Promoter’s Cup with Vojtíšek and Dutch Scania standard-bearer Erwin Kleinnagelvoort second and third.
Lacko has extended his lead in the overall standings. He now has 165 points, followed by Halm (115), Hahn (114), Kiss (111), Albacete (90), Körber (70), and Lenz (64).
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