Friday, 29.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Friday at the Slovakia Ring

Friday at the Slovakia Ring

14. July 2017Slovakiaring - For almost all teams and pilots in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship the Slovakia Ring, situated some 40 km southeast of Bratislava near the village of Orechová Potôň, is uncharted territory. And so everyone was glad for the opportunity the VIP and press rides, with which this 4th round kicked off today, presented to acquaint themselves with the lay of the land. The supplementary hour of free practice for participants in this activity was an added attraction.
They’d thoroughly explored the track on Thursday evening on foot, by bicycle, on kick scooters and moto scooters, and even in golf carts. Even so, some just couldn’t avoid a trip or two through the gravel traps today.
The hour-long practice late afternoon was the first timed session. Iveco pilot Jochen Hahn was quickest for most of the session with a 2:43.920 – till Norbert Kiss made his appearance in a tankpool24 Mercedes and straightway thrust the German from the top by three hundredths, with the MANs of Steffi Halm (GER) and Antonio Albacete (ESP) only three twentieths and three tenths respectively off the Hungarian’s time on a very evenly matched leaderboard.
Almost an hour later it was time for the first regulation free practice. The picture that now emerged was very different. Albacete went four hundredths faster (2:43.846) in the Bernau MAN than Kiss earlier, but you could see the tankpool24 driver was taking it somewhat easier. The overwhelming impression was that most teams were still experimenting – what else could explain the massive variations in individual pilots’ lap times?
Things began to get more serious in the second free practice session. Kiss in particular set a series of times that no-one could have anticipated earlier today, and the spread between the leaders widened considerably. The Mercedes man’s best, a 2:42.204, was a full second quicker than Steffi Halm’s top time, and 1.5 seconds better than Hahn’s, with the rest three or more seconds slower.
We know that Norbert Kiss is very much at home on the Slovakia Ring, having regularly raced here in his touring-car days. On the other hand, touring-car experience counts for little when you’re racing a truck on a circuit like this one.
Co-favourites Adam Lacko and David Vršecký, the Czech Buggyra pilots, had all their times expunged after their Freightliners fell foul of the no-visible-smoke rule.
It was cloudy throughout with a steady light breeze – perfect racing weather. Yesterday was much warmer, with strong gusts of wind measured at up to 70 km/h. The wind had been unmanageably wild on Wednesday evening. The teams had taken up their positions in the paddock and some had just erected their tents, when a storm broke over the Slovakia Ring. There were recurrent power cuts and squalls of such force that many feared for their tents. Fastening straps were hastily got together and the tent frames secured to the heaviest objects at hand, be those tyre racks, forklift trucks, or even spare wheels. Despite having taken all that trouble, however, one team saw its tent uprooted and blown away, framework and all, severely damaging its race trailer parked alongside.
The redeeming factor for this crew was that some of them had yet to depart from their home base and so could bring a replacement tent along, which they promptly tethered to another trailer.

Impressions:

Friday at the Slovakia Ring
Friday at the Slovakia Ring
Friday at the Slovakia Ring
Friday at the Slovakia Ring