Sunday at the Slovakia Ring Part 2 – Second victory for Kiss

16. July 2017Slovakiaring - At the start of Race 3 in the late afternoon the air had warmed up to 25°C, and the asphalt on the grid was measured at 45° – not as hot as the teams had feared. But the top three starters felt the heat alright in the first corner. Polesitter Hahn and Kiss, starting alongside, came off well after the lights turned green. Albacete accelerated even quicker up from the second row and entered the first corner, a high-speed right-hander, abreast of the two frontrunners but on the advantageous inside line. However, the Spaniard’s momentum carried him wide, forcing Hahn to his left wide as well and giving Kiss, who’d fallen behind, a look-in on inside that he wasted not a second capitalising on to overtake both Albacete and Hahn. The Spanish MAN pilot and his German Iveco rival tried their best to keep up, but the Hungarian in his runaway Mercedes was lapping about a second quicker and there was just no holding him back from a chanceless second victory.
The composition of the podium was this decided on the first lap itself;
Hahn settled on trying to get past the MAN of Albacete, but the seasoned Spaniard wouldn’t give him a chance.
Right behind the trio was Steffi Halm, and she in turn had Lacko breathing down her neck. As the two trucks ahead of her braked strongly, Halm was forced to hit the skids, allowing Lacko to get his Buggyra up alongside the MAN-in-blue. The Freightliner was quicker to accelerate, and Steffi had to cede her 4th place to the Czech.
Vršecký drove a sedate race to 6th with plenty of safe space before and behind, where Lenz and Körber fought a raging battle all the way to finish line. The Iveco pilot conceded 7th place by three tenths, but gained the consolation of pole for the weekend’s final race.
José Rodrigues was 9th, ahead of German race-by-race pilot Faas (Iveco).
Tankpool24 (Kiss / Kursim) was the top team again, followed this time by Truck Sport Bernau / Reboconort (Albacete / José Rodrigues) and Buggyra Racing 1969 (Vršecký / Lacko). José Rodrigues took first prize in the Promoter’s Cup, with Faas and Czech Frankie Vojtíšek (MAN) first and second runners-up.

Impressions: