Sunday in Jarama Part 3 – Hahn wins dramatic concluding race

04. October 2015Jarama - The rain started to fall precisely at the start of the last race of the weekend, and heavily enough to make the conditions more than a bit tricky. At any rate, the 25,500 spectators were in for a right rousing spectacle.
Hahn lost no time taking the lead from polesitter Reinert and Vršecký shot up to 3rd, Albacete likewise making up quite a few places by the first corner. Lacko now had Kiss breathing down his neck.
Hahn drove his own race way out in front, but behind him the racing was close. The clumping of a diversity of race trucks wasn’t going to be without consequences on the narrow track, and in the third lap Lacko and Kiss collided heavily in the near-180° Le Mans hairpin.
The Czech’s Buggyra thundered into the tyre barrier and rebounded onto the track. Lacko had lost a few positions, but was able to carry on, without any apparent problem.
However, his unplanned excursion into the landscape had left behind a trail of debris. The curve was spread over with sand and gravel, and all that was left of the tyre barrier was a few hundred tyres tossed all around. There was no avoiding the red flags.
Cleaning the track and getting it ready for the restart took its time.
Three quarters of an hour later the action resumed. In the mean time the shower had subsided and the track was dry at the restart, for which the trucks lined up in the order in which they’d crossed the line at the end of the second lap. After the race the drivers’ times for both segments were added for the final result. Not easy for the fans to figure out, because the final classification doesn’t necessarily reflect the order in which the trucks cross the line.
Hahn once again scooted off into the lead and had in a short time built up an enormous cushion over the rest, who only seemed to be getting in one another’s way.
Two laps on, Albacete had passed Reinert to the jubilation of the fans and was now in second - but with Kiss in tow. These two proceeded to engage in a take-no-prisoners slugfest that the fans enjoyed so long as Albacete had the upper hand, but that nobody else could quite understand the point of. Kiss is already champion with an incredible lead in the standings; Albacete will still need some luck to finish fourth.
And so just that came to pass that nobody had wanted to.
In the apex of the Farina curve, another near-180° bend like the Le Mans hairpin only 100 metres earlier, the two MANs touched, with Kiss on the inside.
The Spaniard spun around, coming face-to-face with the Hungarian, who was still facing forward. Kiss immediately withdrew from their impromptu embrace and took off in pursuit of Reinert and Lacko, who had cashed in on the opportunity to move ahead. Albacete meanwhile needed some effort to steer his truck back into the right direction.
Hahn in first place - that was clear shortly after the start. But Reinert and Lacko on the podium was a prospect nobody had reckoned with.
Kiss eventually crossed the line one second behind Lacko in 4th to a barrage of boos from the fans; Albacete trailed him a few seconds behind in 5th.
The dramatic duel between the two MAN pilots completely overshadowed the close fight between their pursuers for the remaining points-winning places. At the finish, only seven seconds covered the Buggyra of Vršecký and the four MANs of Lenz, Janiec, Lohr, and Halm in positions 6 through 10.
But that wasn’t the end of the matter.
While the race was in progress Kiss had been awarded a 30 second elapsed-time penalty for his collision with Albacete, and this showed up on the timing monitor immediately after the trucks had crossed the line.
The Hungarian dropped to 11th, and Vojtíšek took the final point on offer.
The team honours obviously went to Reinert Adventure (Hahn / Reinert) after its one-two. Buggyra (Vršecký / Lacko) was second and Bernau-Albacete (Lohr / Albacete) third.
Kiss now has 560 points and is followed in the standings by Hahn (405) and Lacko (404), still one point apart, then Vršecký (369), Albacete (336), and Reinert (230).

Impressions: