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Misano This and That

Misano This and That

02. June 2018It was a hot, hot start to the 2018 FIA European Truck Racing Championship at the Misano World Circuit – look at it any which way you may. The frequent appearance of thin clouds did little to veil the effulgence of the sun, which was reflected in the flushed faces, arms, shoulders, and backs all round, and not least in the track temperature, which exceeded 50° at times on the pit straight.
It was positively infernal for Czech veteran Frankie Vojtíšek in the first race – large flames suddenly leapt from the rear of his white MAN. Exploding fragments from a broken propshaft tore through the oil and diesel lines, the leaking fluids likely coming into contact with the hot brake discs or exhaust muffler and igniting spontaneously. The truck appeared enveloped in flames, trailed by a large plume of black smoke visible from miles around. Videos of the incident circulating on the Internet are impressive enough, but what spoke volumes was Vojtíšek’s reaction after he brought his truck to a halt. It’s only a person with more than 30 years of truck racing experience that can keep his cool in such circumstances, as one video by a fan from the stands shows.
It was rather more pleasant for quadruple champion Jochen Hahn on Sunday evening as he took stock of his weekend. Just a year ago the bantam from the Black Forest town of Altensteig met his Waterloo at Misano when the engine in his Iveco packed it in – and the cause was later found to be little more than a trifle. The to-be champion Adam Lacko, on the other hand, won 58 points out of a possible 60.
This time round it was the Czech Buggyra pilot’s turn to bear the jinx. Complications arising out of – what should have been – a routine surgery left him in less than top form, and then things didn’t quite work out as they ought. On Sunday all he could collect were two points for 9th in Race 3.
There was quite a bit of frustration at tankpool24 Racing after this spectacularly eventful opening round. The team’s Hungarian ace Norbert Kiss was first certified and feted as 3rd, then disqualified. After the race the trucks are weighed again, and Kiss’s Mercedes was found underweight. The water tanks for the brake cooling spray were bone dry, and the diesel tank too had not a drop left. Instead of the 12 race laps plus one formation lap, the restart resulted in more laps being driven, whereas the short interval between qualifying and the race wasn’t enough for the water tanks to be filled full.
With a solid third place in Race 3 Sunday, Norbert Kiss and the tankpool24 Racing team proved that their performance the day before had nothing to do with an unfair weight advantage.
Steffi Halm also put on a strong showing. After her switch to the Schwabentruck Iveco team, for a while it didn’t look like she’d survive the rough-and-tumble of this record field. First, a bashed-in windscreen, the result of being hit by a stone, caused Steffi to miss the Super Pole for the first time since ... we can’t remember when. In Race 1 she covered only a couple of hundred metres before making bruising contact with the MAN of Frenchman Anthony Janiec. Both trucks hobbled around with flat fronts, before the red flags came to their rescue. They were allowed back into the pits for a change of tyres, but had to take the restart from pit lane when the rest of the field had passed. Steffi then drove one of the best races of her career to finish 4th.
For Sascha Lenz (GER), Misano was the weekend of a lifetime. His first win, a 2nd, and three podiums – two of them on the top step, – for Team Reinert Adventure, together with MAN colleague René Reinert, were altogether more than his family team SL Trucksport had hoped for in the run-up to Misano.
After the first weekend the championship standings are anything but indicative of a final outcome. Indeed, they are so close as we’ve not seen in many seasons. Behind Hahn, the next five – from Halm till Kiss – are spread apart by just nine points. If the Hungarian hadn’t been disqualified he’d be a close 2nd, instead of 6th as he now is. But the next round is at the Hungaroring and the “RoadStar powered by Mercedes-Benz” will have a huge home advantage. High-voltage performances all round are guaranteed.

Impressions:

Misano This and That
Misano This and That
Misano This and That
Misano This and That
Misano This and That