Friday, 29.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Sunday in Most Part 2 – Rain puts paid to all racing

Sunday in Most Part 2 – Rain puts paid to all racing

01. September 2019Most - The day had started out so promisingly that nobody could have foreseen how lousy the weather would turn at noon. The sky grew overcast, and just before the grid formation it began to pour. By the time the trucks had all settled in, the rain abruptly ceased, and we all thought the worst was over. There was still half an hour to go till the start, time enough for the track to dry out.
Even so, the stewards decided that it would be wise, owing to several patches of standing water around the circuit, to require the first lap to be run under yellow flags. A godsend for Hahn, but a catastrophic decision for Lenz. The race had hardly started when the first few drops fell again. Hahn took off footloose and fancy-free, while Lenz stayed stuck in the rear-end of the field. Some of the drivers ahead of him were having difficulties keeping a race line through the chicanes, but the restriction on overtaking meant the impatient MAN pilot had no choice but to hold his horses. As a result, he trailed the leader by several hundred metres when the trucks came across the line to complete the first lap. The scattered drops suddenly turned into a heavy downpour, and now even the top pilots couldn’t steer around the curves. The red flag was inevitable.
Officially, the race had been stopped after two complete laps, which meant the grid for the restart would correspond to the order in which the trucks last crossed the line. According to the rules, the final classification in a race stopped later than on the first lap is derived from the sum of each driver’s times in the two part-races. This can be confusing for spectators, because the winner isn’t necessarily the driver who crosses the line first but the one whose composite time is the shortest.
As the trucks and their pilots waited with anticipation in pit lane, the true intensity of the showers became dreadfully apparent. When the rain let up somewhat, the marshals set to work with brooms and squeegees in a valiant effort to slick the water off the track. In parts it stood more than 10 cm deep and refused to flow away, so the firemen had to be called in.
An hour and a half after the original start the pilots were instructed to leave their trucks in parc fermé till the restart was announced, even as a car race from a supporting series got the green light. An hour later, they finally set out on the formation lap leading up to the restart. Just then, the heavens opened and two minutes later the red flag was waved again. The pace truck led the field slowly back to the grid, and the waiting game began. Finally, when the trucks should have been slotting into formation for Race 4, the pace truck set off for the third time. As they made their way through the pools of rainwater, the race trucks – despite their low speeds – churned up huge plumes of spray, lowering visibility to near zero.
The field was led directly back into parc fermé, and it was announced that a fourth attempt would be made three quarters of an hour later. But then the next thunderstorm hit, and the stewards had no option but to call off both races.

Impressions:

Sunday in Most Part 2 – Rain puts paid to all racing
Sunday in Most Part 2 – Rain puts paid to all racing
Sunday in Most Part 2 – Rain puts paid to all racing