Saturday at the Slovakia Ring Part 2 – Easy win for Hahn
06. July 2019Slovakiaring -
The mercury was pushing 33°C and the track was measured at 50° at the start of Race 1. It will have been considerably hotter inside the steel-shell cabins of the race trucks. The race itself didn’t last a full lap. Kursim and Recuenco came together in the second corner, an encounter that sent the German’s Iveco skidding off deep into the gravel. Hahn had made a copybook start, as had his teammate Halm, the „Bullen“ settling into the lead after the first corner. But Kursim’s Iveco was stranded in the runoff area, plumb in the path of any other truck that might come off the track at that corner, and the stewards deemed the race too dangerous to continue.
The truck had to be recovered first, and considering the race had been red-flagged on the first lap, a restart was ordered. That meant another 15 minutes waiting under the blazing sun and a second formation lap.
Hahn took off and, as at the earlier go, P2 starter Kiss (Mercedes-Benz) promptly lost a few positions. But Halm made an even better start than Hahn, rocketing ahead to lead the field into the first corner. Hahn was back in front by the start of Lap 2, and stayed ahead unperturbed till the flag.
After Albacete, the closest pursuer of the leading trio, was forced out after only a fourth of the race with a damaged tyre, Halm and Lacko did not have to fear for their podium positions anymore. Indeed, tyre damage did a few other pilots in as well. One of those was Anderson, who retired after the first lap. And Kiss, who’d made a lousy start – else he’d have been spared the misery – had to contend with two bust tyres following a few hefty collisions. The Hungarian hung on tenaciously, and was rewarded with P5 at the finish when Reinert collected a 10 second overspeed penalty. The Lusatian fleetowner had fought Lenz off to finish fourth, but the penalty dropped him to P8.
While Hahn headed unchallenged for victory, Halm had Lacko’s Freightliner all over her faux fifth-wheel. The German knows as well as anybody how quickly fading tyres on the Slovakia Ring can turn the result of a race around, but she held on for all she’s worth, crossing the line a fighting 15 hundredths ahead of the Czech.
Lacko, Lenz, and Kiss were followed home by Recuenco in P6, ahead of Oly Janes (Buggyra Freightliner). Reinert, demoted by that penalty, would have the consolation of starting the following race from pole. Tankpool24 pilot Fabio Citignola (Mercedes-Benz) and Eduardo Rodrigues (MAN) were the two other pilots in the points. The young German only barely managed to overtake the Portuguese veteran in the last corner, having lost quite a bit of time in an excursion through the gravel. His P9 finish won him third spot on the Grammer Truck Cup podium, behind Recuenco and Janes.
„Die Bullen von Iveco Magirus“ (Hahn / Steffi Halm) were the big winners of the team competition, ahead of Buggyra Racing (Janes / Lacko) and tankpool24 Racing (Kiss / Citignola).
Impressions:
