Friday, 29.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Red Bull Ring This and That

Red Bull Ring This and That

10. July 2013Ten years without a single truck race don’t seem to have dampened the Austrians’ enthusiasm for the sport one little bit. A good 25,000 spectators turned out for the fourth round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship on the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, far more than the organisers had expected.
The fans were treated to lots of exciting racing, especially for the last few places in the points. But even the second race on Saturday had them on their feet as the Czech Adam Lacko (MKR Renault) won by a whisker, having traded the lead several times with MAN pilot Norbert Kiss (HUN). Defending champion Jochen Hahn ceded his lead in the championship for the first time to his Spanish MAN colleague Antonio Albacete, but the performance differential between the two is really so fine that failure to finish in just one race could change the picture drastically.
The circuit itself is just as it was 10 years ago — only the main building with the pit garages and offices, the restaurants, the terraces, and an ultramodern press room are new. Even the lap length of the “short circuit” for the Truck Race Trophy remains the same. With the RaceTrucks lapping at a little over a minute, and 20 times per race, the spectators had a full overview of the action throughout. That apart, the organisers were clearly emulating the Truck Grand Prix on the Nürburgring, many of them having had years of experience with the TGP. In addition to the racing routine, which one is used to anyway, there were a whole host of extra attractions so that even visitors who might not have been hot on the racing came away fully satisfied.
And that’s why it’s so annoying, for the fans, the organisers, and even the participating teams and drivers, that both events, the only two in German-speaking countries, should take place just a week apart. The teams had the TGP on their minds for much of Sunday — after all they had an 850km-long journey ahead of them and would, moreover, have hardly any time to finish a mountain of tasks outstanding since the TGP kicks off on Thursday itself.

Supported by Meritor Translation: Eliot Lobo

Impressions:

Red Bull Ring This and That
Red Bull Ring This and That
Red Bull Ring This and That