Saturday in Jarama Part 3 – Lacko wins twice over

04. October 2014Jarama - Even though a few clouds had crept across the sky, the temperatures refused to drop below 25° — perfect weather for motorsport. René Reinert thought as much too, going into the race from second place on the grid. With excellent prospects for a podium-place finish, the Lusatian had drawn his wild card for two fresh tyres. And for a long while it looked like the MAN pilot had made the right choice. He handily won the dash to the first corner, stretching his lead over polesitter Janiec lap after lap, the Frenchman in turn determined not to allow the nominally quicker drivers behind him to do much except study the back of his cab.
Reinert continued to control proceedings for two-thirds of the race — by the ninth lap he was at least seven seconds clear of the field. But then, with a Spanish stalled in the gravel trackside and yellow flags being waved at various places, he caught up with one of the backmarkers. At this moment, Reinert told us later, he wasn’t certain if the yellow-flag phase, in which overtaking is expressly banned, had been lifted. Rather than risk a 30-second penalty, he decided to lift off and abort the approach. But then, he didn’t notice the oil slick on the track. The blue MAN skidded off onto the grass and spun. By the time he was able to launch himself back, he’d dropped five places.
In the second rank at the start, meanwhile, there had been scrapes between Vršecký and Bösiger. Somewhat later Bösiger and Vršecký again locked in close combat, till the Czech ended up stuck in the gravel towards the middle of the race. This wasn’t about points (both drivers were out of the top 10 at the time) but, it turned out, all about ego — let the others fight for the points!
Lacko had inherited the lead from the reeling Reinert, and nothing now stood between him and victory. Janiec meanwhile was doing an excellent job of staying ahead of Albacete, Hahn, and Kiss, the three drivers who will decide this year’s championship between them. Try all they might, there was just no getting ahead — the Frenchman resolutely held them off till the finish, crossing the line not quite a couple of metres ahead of Albacete. Hahn, Kiss, Reinert, and Vojtíšek followed as if in convoy. The skirmishes at the head of the field at the start had allowed some of the pilots who’d started further down to leapfrog into the top 10. Spaniard Javier Mariezcurrena (MAN), José Rodrigues, and Ellen Lohr (MAN) all capitalised on the chaos ahead of them, the German amazon grabbing her second FIA point this season.
Lacko’s was a twofold victory. For many years the Czech has entered this event as the only non-Iberian in the Spanish national championship. And here too he emerged top dog at long last, ahead of Albacete and Mariezcurrena.
Reinert Adventure was the top-scoring team, followed by Truckdrive JRT (Janiec / Lohr) and Buggyra.
But then the race director weighed in. Bösiger was pronounced guilty for tangling with Vršecký at the start. The ruling had no consequence on the result of today’s race, and wouldn’t have affected Bösiger either, since he was out of the points anyway. But the harsh penalty he’s been handed handicaps him 10 places at the start for tomorrow’s first race.
Kiss and Albacete are now level on points at 323, followed by Hahn (318), Lacko (263), Vršecký (204), and Bösiger (199).

Impressions: