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Hungaroring This and That

Hungaroring This and That

30. August 2017The 5th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship at the Hungaroring near Budapest was one hot weekend – in every aspect. The paddock was, as is customary here, overrun with eager spectators. Hungarian Mercedes pilot Norbert Kiss was, of course, at the centre of all the attention and dense clusters of fans could be seen around the tankpool24 team’s tents throughout.
This time, though, they didn’t have quite as much reason to rejoice as in 2015, when truck racing returned to Hungary after a 25-year gap. Sure, the home hero, who can drive a hot lap here in his sleep, was overwhelmingly superior in all the practice sessions and qualifying, duly going on to dominate Race 1. But a crash on the first lap of Saturday’s second race abruptly ended the Mercedes pilot’s surge up from 8th on the reversed grid.
In Sunday’s first race Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner) snatched the lead from him at the start and refused to give it up till the flag. Time and again Kiss came close enough to latch onto Lacko’s rear crash guard, and the whole world waited with bated breath for that decisive overtaking manoeuvre, which unfortunately never materialised. The Hungarian ace’s problem was one every other racer and truck faced this weekend – temperatures nobody really was prepared for, and not the slightest whisper of a breeze.
For the drivers it was impossible to stay out in the sun for any length of time; the race trucks were prone to overheat and suffer other high-temperature-induced problems, especially during extended periods of drafting. Kiss had to abandon his Mercedes trackside halfway through Race 4 with what seemed to be a thermally induced failure. His may have been the most conspicuous example, but it wasn’t by any means the only one. Several of Kiss’s competitors reported temporary losses of power and various warning lamps lighting up when they followed the trucks ahead of them too closely for anything more than a brief while.
With three wins in a row Lacko extended his lead in the overall standings. The Hungaroring also proved a happy hunting ground for MAN pilotess Steffi Halm, who finished thrice on the podium.
The temperatures aren’t expected to be as high at this coming weekend at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic, but the trucks will need to be back in top condition. The circuit opened the gates to its paddock area on Monday itself, so that the teams that wanted could come in and service their trucks in peace before the pressure of the weekend builds up. Welcome invitation for several teams to set off on the 600+ km journey northwest as soon as they’d packed up. Motorists and the many Hungarians, Slovaks, and Czechs streetside – the route to Most passes through several villages and towns – watched in amazement as the convoys of brightly coloured semitrailer trucks passed them by, carrying the ferocious race trucks – backward-facing, – now meekly strapped to their rear platforms.

Impressions:

Hungaroring This and That
Hungaroring This and That
Hungaroring This and That