Most Preliminary Report
31. August 2017Five days after the last race at the Hungaroring, the truck racing circus will open its gates to the fans at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic for the 6th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship. The second half of the 2017 season is going to take some stamina, with four race weekends spread over only five weeks. The majority of the teams drove directly from the Hungaroring to the Czech Republic so that they could get their trucks in top fighting form in peace and quiet – the paddock was available to them from Monday itself.
The forecasts aren’t as sunny as what we experienced in Hungary – far from it. Indeed, a few of the weather services here have actually forecast rain.
A total of 18 trucks and drivers are on the entry list for this 25th edition of what’s now known as the Czech Truck Prix. They include the 13 full-season campaigners, the three race-by-race pilots that were at the Hungaroring – Czech Frankie Vojtíšek and Brits Ryan Smith and Shane Brereton (all MAN), – plus Pole Grzegorz Ostaszewski driving the Renault of the French Team 14 and, in Maurice Monfrino, one of the oldest warhorses on the truck racing scene. The Frenchman will race the Volvo otherwise piloted by Manu Rodrigues (for a team that Monfrino manages) in the French championship.
Adam Lacko is the larger-than-life favourite here, as Norbert Kiss is at the Hungaroring. For his Buggyra team, headquartered in Roudnice nad Labem 60 km away, Most has long served as a permanent test track for the Freightliners. After Lacko made a name for himself at the Nürburgring as a rainman, the racing last weekend showed he can win just as irresistibly in scorching heat. At this stage he is clearly the favourite for the title. Mercedes pilot Kiss and German reigning champ Jochen Hahn (Iveco) are joint second in the standings, 58 points behind, their championship hopes receding. It’s 11 years on, but Hahn hasn’t forgotten that 2006 season in which he was the favourite after four rounds with a (supposedly) unbeatable lead of 38 points over archrival Antonio Albacete. Over the four rounds that followed, the Spaniard picked up a whopping 93 points more than the German and won the championship.
So you can’t write off the two pursuers’ chances just yet. Not MAN pilotess Steffi Halm’s either – she’s just two points further behind.
Most traditionally attracts a lot of German fans from the east and south, seeing as it’s far closer for them than the Nürburgring. This gives the German pilots the comfortable feeling of racing on home turf.
And if suntan lotion was an absolute necessity for the fans at the Hungaroring, a raincoat would be more in order at Autodrom Most – it’s already started to rain.
Impressions:
