A packed program at the tests in Most

19. April 2018Some of the teams in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship took all three track days at Most to thoroughly shake down their 2018 race machines.
The largest contingent consisted of the Ivecos – there were a good six trucks of the Italian marque in action here. They naturally included the #44 and #27 Schwabentruck racers of Steffi Half and Gerd Körber. Quadruple Champion Jochen Hahn became a member of the family last season, and has since built quite a few Iveco race trucks. The bantam from Altensteig isn’t only providing the truck that André Kursim will race for the new Don’t Touch Racing outfit; at Most he rolled out another 1,200 hp missile for son Lukas, keeping a promise he’d made the junior Hahn at Christmas.
It was an especially emotional moment for Schwabentruck boss “Schorsch” Glöckler when Finn Mika Mäkinen showed up in the paddock in the Iveco race truck that Glöckler and his team of apprentices had built for the 2005 season.
There were, of course, more than just Ivecos at the Hahn-initiated track days – five MANs and two Buggyra Freightliners took the total to 13.
The MAN spearhead, nay, trident this season will consist of Reinert Adventure teammates René Reinert and Sascha Lenz, and Spaniard Antonio Albacete in the Truck Sport Bernau MAN. Following the tests the two Germans were extremely positive about being able to mix it up at the front, at least as far as the team championship goes. Albacete took turns at the single Bernau MAN with his new teammate for the coming season, compatriot Luis Recuenco. Englishman Ryan Smith did his stuff in the OXXO truck, and home hero Frankie Vojtíšek made up the MAN quintet.
On Tuesday, Buggyra Racing presented its 2018 Freightliners and their drivers, defending champ Adam Lacko and Englishman Oly Janes.
Pouring rain on Monday meant nobody could put down a single lap at race pace, the treacherous conditions stretching the pilots – and pilotess – to the limits of their ability to just keep the trucks on the track.
Excursions into the gravel were frequent, André Kursim once ending up astraddle the Armco – albeit with no lasting damage to his truck.
The conditions on Tuesday and Wednesday, by contrast, were ideal. But then everyone was bent on matching their own benchmarks from last year’s tests, making sure not to – even accidentally – reveal any advance they might be preparing to unleash at the season-opener next month.
The gloves will come off at the first qualifying session in Misano six weeks from now.

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