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Jochen Hahn determined to recapture his title

Jochen Hahn determined to recapture his title

21. February 2015While Spaniard Antonio Albacete has decided to enter the new season with the same MAN he drove in 2014, albeit suitably souped up, Jochen Hahn, his successor in the gallery of European truck race champions, will race a completely new MAN truck.
Now new does not necessarily mean faster, as the thrice European champ from Altensteig in the Black Forest had to learn last season when he was beaten hands down by Hungarian Norbert Kiss, driving the very same truck Hahn himself had won the championship in the year before.
But much else is different this year. The MAN factory service team, whose inexhaustible wealth of experience even the top drivers profited from in no small measure, isn’t around anymore. Last season it was clear early on that the champion, as in the seasons preceding, would be an MAN man. Careful to avoid the imputation of favouring any one of the three title aspirants, the mechanics from Nuremberg were fastidiously thorough about each of the three top trucks.
This year, however, the teams have been left to their own devices. And you bet the crew around Hahn, who’ve shown they have what it takes to deliver three championships in a row, are going to make full capital of this invaluable store of experience.
In order to fetch the championship back to Germany, Team Hahn Racing is focusing all its energies on a single race truck — there won’t be a guest truck this year. Hahn’s 2014 truck, in which the Swabian finished runner-up, will serve solely as a showcase exhibit. This will help the team avoid the distraction of PR obligations, when the mechanics usually would much rather be preparing the race truck for the next round.
But there’s plenty to do till they get there, not to forget the all-important shakedown tests. After all, which motorist hasn’t experienced niggles with a new car? Hahn, though, will want to eradicate every such before the start of the first race in Valencia on 25 April.

Impressions:

Jochen Hahn determined to recapture his title
Jochen Hahn determined to recapture his title