Friday at the Slovakia Ring
13. July 2018Slovakiaring - This weekend’s Truck Race of Slovakia marks the second year the FIA European Truck Racing Championship is visiting the high-speed Slovakia Ring some 40 km east-southeast of Bratislava. The circuit is not only the longest on the ETRC calendar at close to six km; its layout also allows the trucks to reach higher average speeds than they do on the other seven – the difference compared to the Nürburgring is about 15 km/h.
Today’s programme included the taxi rides for the VIPs and press. The pilots from the FIA World Touring Car Cup eagerly snapped up the invitation to ride along in the race trucks and came away mightily impressed. Lapping the circuit at race speed in 5.3 tonnes of metal and rubber, with up to 1,200 hp and 5,500 Nm of torque, is a wholly different experience from what these drivers are used to, even if their race cars, filigrain in comparison, reach much higher speeds than the 160 km/h the race trucks are restricted to for reasons of safety.
After the gracious hospitality the drivers got down to work in free practice, exploring racelines and evaluating setup alternatives. This is necessary here because the races aren’t decided on the straights – where the trucks all do 160 km/h – but in the fast curves such as the notorious T6, a right-hander that’s wide on entry and progressively narrows towards the exit.
Attempts to establish braking points resulted in a few casualties and a few more near-casualties. Of the faster racers only Hungarian Norbert Kiss in his tankpool24 Mercedes and Iveco pilotess Steffi Halm escaped excursions through the gravel. Kiss, lest we forget, has raced touring cars any number of times on the Slovakia Ring and can lap this circuit in his sleep.
By contrast, four-times champion Jochen Hahn (Iveco), the only driver besides Kiss to set a time in the 2:43s, compatriot Sascha Lenz (MAN), and Spanish archrival Antonio Albacete kicked up clouds of dust, as did the others.
They’ll all have another 30 minutes of free practice tomorrow morning to finesse their racelines before qualifying kicks off.
A few pilots have withdrawn from this round, citing illness or exceptional circumstances, so the field will consist of only 15 trucks.
Impressions:
