First tests of the season in Most

16. April 2018The trucks that will compete in the 2018 FIA European Truck Racing Championship go head-to-head for the first time this week at the pre-season track days at Autodrom Most, now a regular feature on the calendar.
The first teams started pulling in on Saturday morning, some arrived yesterday, and a few more are expected today, the first day of the meeting.
Jochen Hahn, the man who initiated this activity – rather unique in all of motorsport, – is here with two trucks (the second one will be tested by his son Lukas). The Iveco that André Kursim will race for the new Don’t Touch Racing team is also Hahn-built. And then there are the two Schwabentruck Ivecos that will be piloted by Steffi Halm and her predecessor Gerd Körber, who – his retirement regardless – is going to be back in action for at least two rounds.
Sascha Lenz was first out this morning with Stella, his brand new MAN race truck. They were followed onto the track by his new Reinert Adventure teammate, René Reinert himself. But the two misters MAN were back in the paddock after only a few laps, joined anon by Jochen Hahn and Steffi Halm. The steady rain had made the asphalt too wet for anyone to really let it rip.
Lutz Bernau is here from Germany with – albeit only for the testing – a single MAN, which both his Spanish pilots Antonio Albacete and Luis Recuenco will take turns at.
There is, of course, no leaving out the local Czech heroes; MAN pilot Frankie Vojtíšek arrived at the weekend, and 2017 champ Adam Lacko’s Buggyra team, headquartered in nearby Roudnice, is here to test both its Freightliners.
Englishman Ryan Smith and Finn Mika Mäkinen have also sent ahead to confirm their participation, so there’s every chance we’ll see some heavy traffic here over the next three days.
Everyone’s hoping they’ll be able to put down at least some laps at race pace on completely dry tarmac.