Saturday in Most Part 3 - Smith wins from Halm

02. September 2017Most - The start grid for Race 2 had Smith and Lenz on the front row, in reverse order of their finishing positions. Polesitter Smith made good use of his advantage to forge into the lead, with Lenz slotting in right behind him. They had Steffi Halm in hot pursuit, the only lady racer in the field having shot up to 3rd right at the start. This trio rapidly pulled out a gap at the head of the field, even as things started to get knotty further down.
Vršecký, in 4th, was under severe attack from Kiss. Lurking in their shadows were Lacko, Albacete, and Hahn, the trio literally waiting for the two trucks ahead of them to come to blows. All this time the three frontrunners – Steffi Halm had, meanwhile, overtaken her Reinert Adventure teammate – kept extending their lead.
Towards mid-race Lacko overtook Kiss, the Hungarian’s Mercedes now looking decidedly off-colour. Not much later Kiss had to pack it in owing to a steering pump failure.
Getting past his teammate Vršecký was a mere formality for Lacko. But by now he’d missed the bus; a podium place was well out of reach, even if Lenz had eased up towards the finish, the young German pilot wanting to make his podium place sure.
Further up front, Smith was being hounded by Halm till they fortuitously came upon the first backmarkers. Smith went full speed past the Volvo of Frenchman Maurice Monfrino, while Halm was held up – effectively deciding the race in the Englishman’s favour.
There was a proper three-way battle for 5th place between Vršecký, Albacete, and Hahn. Well aware that this was about just one point, more or less, none of the three took any big risks, however, and they crossed the finish line as one compact unit, fractions of a second apart.
Körber was 8th, followed by José Rodrigues and Brereton. The junior Rodrigues accordingly won the Promoter’s Cup ahead of Brereton and Vojtíšek.
Reinert Adventure (Halm / Lenz) took the team honours, followed by Buggyra Racing 1969 (Vršecký / Lacko) and Truck Sport Bernau-Reboconort (Albacete / José Rodrigues).
Lacko now has 254 points, followed by Hahn (198), Steffi Halm (191), Kiss (186), Albacete (139), Lenz (104), and Körber (92).

Impressions: