Sunday in Most Part 1 - Buggyras shut out front row for first race

31. August 2014Most - The weather forecast for the Sunday of this sixth weekend of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship in Most hadn’t been particularly uplifting, but the reality was even worse. It rained relentlessly from early in the morning and the track was awash when the truck racers lined up at 9 am on the dot for the warm-up. A few seconds later the red flags were out — a truck had skidded off. It took 10 minutes for the session to resume. The conditions were dismal, and the lap times – 45 seconds slower than yesterday’s top time – meaningless.
The supporting Formula Renault race was cancelled, the track deemed too treacherous for the speedy lightweights.
Qualifying for the FIA ETRC started on schedule, and there was action enough in the 15 minutes to get the fans all excited. The track was so unpredictable that even the top drivers had no choice but to keep lapping till the final seconds — there was no question of easing off after just one flying lap, as they are wont to do in the interest of tyre conservation.
The lap times were considerably shorter, but still at least 15 seconds off yesterday’s best. Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner) was on top throughout. Despite the light rain the conditions became better, and the times continued to tumble — the Czech’s too, his 2:16.251s on his final lap the best in qualifying.
Lacko was joined in the top 10 by compatriot and teammate David Vršecký, MAN drivers Jochen Hahn (GER), Norbert Kiss (HUN), Antonio Albacete (ESP), Markus Bösiger (SUI), René Reinert (GER), and Frankie Vojtíšek (CZE), Portuguese José Rodrigues (Renault), and Gerd Körber (GER) in his Iveco.
Steffi Halm had slid off towards the close, and the effort to get her yellow MAN back on track pushed the SuperPole back by 25 minutes.
The track was about as wet as it could get, and Kiss, who could have been the fourth out, chose instead to wait till the last minute, evidently hoping that the others would dry the surface out somewhat while they lapped. In the event he was a good 1.5 seconds slower than Lacko in qualifying earlier, but his 2:17.675s was good enough for pole position. He was followed by the Czech trio Vršecký, Lacko, and Vojtíšek, then Hahn, Bösiger, Albacete, Reinert, Körber, and Rodrigues.
That brought qualifying to a close, but – hold your breath – not to a conclusion.
As they must be after a race, the trucks are also held in parc fermé after qualifying, where some of them are called out for scrutineering. Steffi Halm and René Reinert had, in this time, returned to the paddock to have their trucks repaired. Halm had slid off into the embrace of a tyre barrier, and Reinert required an engine change. For both MANs that meant having to start from the end of the field — that much was clear. But that Kiss and Vojtíšek would be penalised for inadequate ground clearance, a rumour that had rustled through the paddock all the while, was finally announced as fact at around 13:35. This meant that they would be the new tail-enders.
And so Vršecký inherited pole.

Impressions: