Friday, 29.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Le Mans This And That

Le Mans This And That

01. October 2017Was Le Mans the decider in the title fight? Czech driver Adam Lacko comes away from the 8th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship with a 45-points lead in the standings, and there’s only the season finale, at Circuito del Jarama north of Madrid, still to go.
But his Buggyra team knows from bitter experience that any celebration yet would be premature. Ten years ago another Buggyra pilot, Markus Bösiger, also held a sizable lead – even if only 32 points at the time – going into the finale, which also happened to be in Jarama that year. The title was Bösiger’s, or so the whole world thought. The Swiss supremo first saw his cushion trimmed to 27 points before the first race, consequent to a penalty for an incident from Most in the Czech Republic more than two months earlier. Still everyone believed Bösiger’s coronation as champion was only a formality. But, after a series of crashes and mechanical failures, protests and counterprotests, the Buggyra pilot was only provisionally presented the champion’s trophy, and it took till Christmas for the FIA to officially confer the distinction on him – and that by a single point!
It was the unpleasant memory, perhaps, that’s kept the team grounded, even if Buggyra is also on the verge of snapping up the team title.
But Lacko’s rivals have let go of any hopes of winning, and are now focused on the two remaining podium places at the FIA prizegiving ceremony on Sunday evening. Reigning champ Jochen Hahn, in the first year of his Iveco partnership, is 16 points ahead of Norbert Kiss (Mercedes), who in turn is an easily bridged 14 points ahead of Hahn’s compatriot Steffi Halm (MAN).
Circuit Bugatti is a favourite circuit of many of the truck racers, and it’s one of Hahn’s top picks as well. From the looks of things, it’s a happy hunting ground for all the drivers of race trucks built by the bantam from Altensteig. In the last race of the weekend, the three top finishers were all trucks crafted in the Hahn workshops. Two years ago it was, indeed, the top four.
One of this year’s Hahn-built machines was the Iveco piloted by Gerd Körber. The thrice European champion, into his 30th year in the sport, was overjoyed to be back on the top step of the podium after 11 long years.
Compatriot Sascha Lenz has hit his stride, and could barely conceal his chagrin at not having been able to take his first win – his direct competitor for the top step on the podium had gained a decisive advantage by cutting across a chicane. Second place in Race 3 – good for 15 points – was, nevertheless, the young MAN pilot’s best finish in his brief career. But it wasn’t his only stellar achievement this weekend. In the Super Pole for that race he’d also, as the circuit’s commentator emphasised, broken the lap record for a race truck and driven the fastest lap in three of the four races.
The four Germans, including Steffi Halm, not only represented a majority in the originally 16-strong field of entrants, but also dominated the podium in all four races with two wins, three second places, and three thirds.
That there were no Frenchmen among them didn’t seem to bother the 56,000 exuberant fans in the slightest. After all, many of their favourites were battling it out in four races of their own for the French championship. Added to those were the invitation races for the guests from the British isles, on whom the race track in Le Mans has exerted an intense fascination for as long as we can remember. They’d had to be accommodated separately because the Coupe de France races already had the maximum number of starters that circuit regulations allow. You can’t pack more than 12 heats into two days.
Then there was the big show down the entire length of the main straight, the massive fireworks, plus the Beatles Revival concert, and the numerous parties around the showtrucks till the wee hours. The 24 Heures Camions did a long Le Mans tradition proud.

Impressions:

Le Mans This And That
Le Mans This And That
Le Mans This And That
Le Mans This And That