Sunday in Zolder Part 1 – Lacko is peerless in pole

18. September 2016Zolder - The teams all love Sunday morning at Zolder because activity here only begins after 10 am. Before that, a religious service held at a shrine tucked away in a grove on the infield dictates absolute “Motor Silence”, as signs all over the paddock won’t let you forget.
Some of the teams had stayed at work till late in the night, swapping engines out, changing gearboxes, and installing new clutches - in total peace. All done, there was still a birthday to celebrate.
When the paddock awoke today somewhat later than usual, the sky was overcast. At the start of warm-up on this final day of the 7th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship on Circuit Zolder in the Belgian province of Limburg, the first rays of the sun shone through, but it was still a chilly 17°C.
And even though there was nothing at stake in this session, some of the drivers went at it with a vengeance. Like yesterday, Adam Lacko (CZE) in his Buggyra Freightliner and German MAN pilot René Reinert registered the top times.
In afternoon qualifying the rest slowly began to show what they came here for, even if the top dogs only really turned up the heat in the SuperPole.
Jochen Hahn (GER) set a brisk pace with his lap of 1:58.428, Lacko and Reinert also ducking under 1:59s. It was clear that these times would be good for a place in the SuperPole, so the three headed back to the pits to wait out the session — and save some rubber. They were joined anon by a few others, among them Hungarian champ Norbert Kiss, who’s flying the flag for a resurging Mercedes this season.
But Kiss isn’t quite as quick yet as he was in an MAN last season, and he suddenly found himself in 10th – relegation zone, – albeit by a slim cushion of more than six-tenths over Ellen Lohr. But the German MAN racer wasn’t slowing down, and the tankpool24 team was gripped by a growing unease.
Four minutes left, Kiss was sent back out as a precautionary measure. Lohr did improve her time on her final lap, but it just wasn’t enough. The Hungarian could take it easy.
Between Hahn, Reinert, and Lacko at the top and Kiss at the bottom, the others in the Top 10 were Frenchman Anthony Janiec (MAN), Schwabentrucker Gerd Körber (Iveco), the two German MANler Sascha Lenz and Steffi Halm, and Czech rookie Jiří Forman (Buggyra Freightliner) und Mercedes pilot André Kursim (GER).
Lacko promptly unleashed the panther in his truck to record a timesheet-shredding 1:57.408s, allowing Hahn no closer than seven-tenths.
The German thrice champ wasn’t letting up, but it was the best he could do on the day; Lacko meanwhile, deciding to finish off what he’d begun, streaked to an even more merciless 1:57.351 for a peerless pole.
Reinert, Halm, Kiss, Körber, Janiec, Forman, Lenz, and Kursim took the remaining places on rows 2 through 5.

Impressions: