Hungaroring Preliminary Report
23. August 2017Hungaroring - Following a six-week summer break the 2017 FIA European Truck Racing Championship enters its second half this weekend with the Hungarian Truck Fest, Round 5 at the Hungaroring. To be precise, the first half of the season will only be complete after Saturday’s races. But even before that, the truck racers have lots else to do at this historic circuit.
The programme starts on Thursday itself with a parade into Budapest. Free practice on Friday is preceded by two sessions of VIP and press rides and the one hour of extra practice for the drivers who participate in that activity. This is something the teams will welcome, after the long interval in which some have made radical modifications to their trucks. Even if some of the top teams did put in a bit of testing, a few simulated race laps aren’t close to adequate.
The weather forecasts, bright sunshine and temperatures of over 35°C, are comfortingly contrary to what Central Europe has experienced so far this summer – particularly for the immediate pursuers of championship leader Adam Lacko. The dread prospect of the Czech in his Buggyra Freightliner suspending the principles of racing dynamics in the wet – as he appeared to do in his utterly dominant recent wins – is ever near in the competition’s psyche.
But it’s around Budapest native Norbert Kiss, second in the standings, that everything’s going to revolve at this third Hungarian Truck Fest. The constant chants “Norbi, Norbi!” you hear all around could have more than just an exhortatory effect; the tankpool24 Mercedes ace is a cult figure here. And following his superlative showing at the Slovakia Ring, a 150 km drive from Budapest, the fans’ expectations are sky-high, to say the least.
Defending champion Jochen Hahn is without doubt the handiest of the top pilots when it comes to race truck mechanics, and he’s also the most hands-on of them all. This year the German has switched sides and is driving an Iveco he’s built himself, winning on his very first outing in the all-new truck. That was extremely encouraging, not just for Hahn and his team but also for Iveco, although it has set the bar of expectations very high indeed. His failure to race on the Sunday in Misano, owing entirely to mechanical problems with the truck, and the rain throughout the subsequent Nürburgring weekend, have lost the quadruple champion quite a bit of ground and he’s now 47 points behind Lacko – albeit with a maximum of 300 points still up for grabs. The season is far from over yet – both Hahn Racing and Iveco know that well, and they’ve used the last few weeks to iron out conceivable glitches and test their fixes.
While Kiss and Hahn focus on Lacko ahead of them, they’ll also need to be mindful of German MAN pilotess Steffi Halm, the only lady in the field, who’s right up behind them – just two points in deficit to Hahn and six to Kiss. And the fact that her Reinert Racing truck, built and backed up by Hahn Racing, has run exceptionally reliably so far.
This top quartet is tailed by a pack led by past master Antonio Albacete. Having sat out the 2016 season, the Spanish MAN pilot is slowly finding his feet again. Even if his chances at the title are slim, you can count on Albacete to pick up a few podiums at the very least.
The same holds for another ex-champion, the German 30-year truck racing veteran Gerd Körber (Iveco). Youngster Sascha Lenz may be something of an exotic in this club of “oldies”, but he’s no less capable of strong finishes, even podiums. The MAN pilot is only four points behind Körber in the standings.
All 13 full-season pilots will be in action this weekend, plus three race-by-race entrants – Brits Ryan Smith and Shane Brereton, and Czech Frankie Vojtíšek (all MAN).
Impressions:
