Sunday in Valencia Part 3 – First win for Albacete

26. April 2015Valencia - Before the final race we were given a revised result for the day’s first race. Reinert and Albacete weren’t the only ones who’d been given drive-through penalties; Ellen Lohr was too, for overtaking under yellow. But since the race was over, hers was turned into a 30-second elapsed time penalty instead. That dropped her down to seventh, behind Reinert and Albacete.
Erwin Kleinnagelvoort´s team was savouring his first pole position in a long career in truck racing. But in the formation lap itself, with the top drivers clearly already chafing at the bit, the question on everyone’s mind was, just how well would the Dutchman be able to handle this pressure?
To cut a long story short, Kleinnagelvoort had no real chance in the flying start. The Scania pilot didn´t get up to pace and, swarmed by the charging trucks halfway down the straight, found himself relegated to their rear going into the first corner.
Ellen Lohr, who’d started alongside Kleinnagelvoort, had it somewhat easier, but even she was overwhelmed by a portion of the pursuing pack - except Reinert, who seemed to hang back. The Lusatian, who many had fancied to finish on the podium, was simply, and quite literally, left behind. The quintet at the front was now too far ahead.
To the jubilation of the 21,000-odd spectators Albacete had snatched the lead shortly after the start, tailed by a tight knot of four trucks consisting of the two MANs of Hahn and Kiss, and the two Buggyras of Vršecký and Lacko. These five lapped the circuit as if bound by a chain. Hahn bumped into Albacete off and on, but the cocky Spaniard just wouldn’t be pressured into making a mistake.
Behind them Vršecký was biding his time till one of the two MAN drivers blocked the other and opened the way for him to slip through. But the Czech himself had Kiss latched onto his rear bumper, and the Hungarian in turn had Lacko’s Buggyra looming large in his rear-view mirrors throughout. And so, though the gaps between the trucks measured fractions of a second, nobody gave in to the slightest distraction that any competitor could have taken advantage of. In the event these five crossed the finish in the same order, all within an interval of two seconds.
Reinert followed them home in sixth, ahead of Janiec, Lohr, Kleinnagelvoort, and Rodrigues.
Truck Sport Bernau-Albacete (Lohr / Albacete) topped in the team championship, followed by Buggyra (Vršecký / Lacko) and Reinert Adventure (Hahn / Reinert).
At 65 points Kiss goes into Round 2 in Spielberg with a lead of 14 points from Hahn, who is followed by Lacko (47), Albacete and Vršecký (both 42), and Reinert (35).

Impressions: