Sunday in Nogaro Part 2 - Hahn wins Race 3

22. June 2014Nogaro - Clouds collected and dispersed over the circuit but the temperature didn’t cross 27°. The track surface, though, was measured at 53° at the start of Race 3. Polesitter Hahn kept his cool, took the lead, and drove to a supreme pole-to-flag victory with Albacete and Kiss in tow. The two Buggyra pilots wrestled for fourth place, Vršecký coming out ahead. Bösiger drove to sixth ahead of Major and Reinert, who thus secured pole position for the final race of the weekend. Halm crossed the line in ninth. Tenth place, and the final point, was fiercely contested till the finish by MAN pilots Frankie Vojtíšek (CZE) and Anthony Janiec (FRA). As they tore down the finish straight the Czech managed to keep his nose ahead by half a second.
The VTR Team had a miserable afternoon. José Rodrigues had made it to the SuperPole alright, but that availed him little. A few hundred metres after the start he was hit heavily from behind, and had to limp back into the pits via the service lanes in his severely damaged truck, its rear tyres shredded. His compatriot, teammate, and Renault colleague José Teodosio sustained an even worse hammering later on. Entering the twin right-hand bends at the far end of the circuit at almost full speed, his truck simply skimmed the gravel trap and smashed straight into the tyre barrier in front of the thick concrete wall. The Renault was immediately towed away backwards, while the race continued under yellow flags.
Frenchman Florian Orsini could at least be thankful that, following a broken spring on his tankpool24 Mercedes, he had an open grassy verge to come to escape onto and come to a halt on. Teammate André Kursim (GER) also had some reason to be glad in adversity, managing with superhuman effort to get his Mercedes across the finish line in 12th despite a flat rear tyre.
Reinert Adventure (Hahn / Reinert) was the top-scoring team, ahead of Truck Sport Bernau (Albacete / Bösiger) and Buggyra (Vrsecky / Lacko).

Impressions: