Saturday in Misano Part 2 – Lacko leads from start to flag
28. May 2016Misano - It was 30°C in the shade as the truck racers lined up in formation for the first race of this weekend at the Misano World Circuit, and the asphalt stewed at 55° in parts. But Reinert kept his cool at the rolling start, getting to the first set of curves a nose ahead of polesitter Lacko. Neck and neck the two trucks thundered down the short straight towards the hairpin, but now the Czech had the more advantageous inside line. Lacko exited the near-180° bend with small lead, which he held onto stedfastly till the flag.
Hahn trailed the leaders in third. Steffi Halm had fallen back in the tumult at the start, but by the end of the first lap was already back up to a fighting fourth. In this same order the quartet that topped the training sessions also crossed the finish line.
The racing behind them was quite a bit scrappier. For several laps Ellen Lohr and Janiec battled for 5th place, the Frenchman finishing ahead by a whisker in a worse-for-wear Lion truck. Towards the close Lohr was also set upon by Körber in his Schwabentruck Iveco.
Robineau was 8th, and by virtue of that place, polesitter for the second race. Kiss, try as he might, just couldn’t catch up with the Frenchman. Following the debacle in qualifying, in which he’d had his times cancelled first for a smoking truck and then for trampling on a penalty marker, the Hungarian had started the race at the rear of the field. At the beginning his advance looked laboured, till he gradually started passing a few distinctly slower competitors. But by then the trucks in midfield were out of sight.
Tenth place went to Forman — till race control decided to look into speed-limit infringements.
Körber had exceeded the 160km/h limit twice, which meant a 20 second elapsed-time penalty and 10th place, promoting Robineau, Kiss, and Forman by one place each, and Kiss to pole.
Reinert Adventure (Hahn / Reinert) was the top-scoring team, ahead of Buggyra International (Lacko / Forman) and WOW! Women On Wheels (Lohr / Halm).
Impressions:
