After Le Mans and Before Jarama
02. October 2019For the second year running, the finale of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship at Circuito del Jarama north of Madrid will take place within a week of the penultimate round in Le Mans. The organisers in Le Mans permitted the teams to stay put till Tuesday afternoon, so most were able to head directly for Jarama, where the paddock was thrown open on Wednesday morning.
In addition to the truck racing – two sets of heats for the European and French championships respectively, – the 24 Heures Camions also featured the usual spectacle with showy performances, a whole host of exquisitely airbrushed trucks tricked out with every accessory you could imagine, the fireworks and concert till late in the night, and – no less prominently – the marquees and kiosks of exhibitors from the industry and trade. The event has brought truckmakers and logistics companies together for over three decades now.
But it was primarily the racing that drew the 60,000 spectators to the circuit over the two days.
Every now and again, we’ve highlighted when a pilot has come off rather badly at a weekend. This time the unfortunate one was Norbert Kiss. He managed to finish just once in his Mercedes – sixth, – only to be subsequently disqualified. Not a single point for the twice-champ in Le Mans.
At the other end of the spectrum, Jochen Hahn and his team were the winningest, and happiest, of the lot. At the end of Race 2 on Saturday the German Iveco pilot was effectively crowned champion for a record sixth time. He added yet another title to his collection when he and Steffi Halm took the team championship for „Die Bullen von Iveco Magirus“.
The winner of the championship may have been decided, but the excitement will continue into the finale at the Circuito del Jarama, with the races for the two remaining podium places at the FIA prizegiving ceremony, and for some of the other positions besides, as wide open as we’ve seldom seen before. Madrilène matador Antonio Albacete (MAN) is still second in the standings, but now has barely three points more than Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner). Theoretically even Steffi Halm, 30-plus points adrift, has chances of a podium finish if it should go with one of the two pilots above her as it did with Norbert Kiss in Le Mans. But should she, God forbid, find herself in that predicament, her own fourth position could be in danger because both Mr MAN Sascha Lenz and Kiss are a somewhat equidistant 30 points below.
Quite apart from such abstract musings, the battle between Albacete and Lacko will most certainly be raw and intense, as will that between Lenz and Kiss for P5 (the two are only a couple of points apart).
Albacete, of course, is always the favourite in Jarama – it’s said he can lap his home circuit competitively in sleep. Over the years, however, someone or other has often scored more points here than the Madrilène. One of those is Lacko. That’s why second place for the home hero is anything but a given.
Even in the duel between Lenz und Kiss, the Hungarian, it could be argued, has the edge since he knows this circuit intricately from his years in touring cars. But he’s had a spotty record here since he switched from MAN to Mercedes in 2016, whereas Lenz has consistently improved since his first outing here in 2015.
The die-hard fans who pack the stands in Jarama every year aren’t interested only in the top dogs; for them, the Spanish stalwarts are no less important. Whereas the FIA pilots are laser-focused on the raceline, the colourful Spaniards love to drift through the corners, as spectacularly as only they can. The domestic pilots, it would appear, are in it more for the fun than for the competition, and there’s nobody that can match them for extreme burnouts and donuts.
This year, though, sees changes on the Spanish truck racing scene. There’s a new organiser in Jarama, and the Copa de España de Camiones is now the Campionato de España de Carreras de Camiones. The Spain Truck Racing Championship will have its own four separate races, constituting the supporting programme of the 33rd Gran Premio de Camiones de España. A sensible move from the sporting perspective perhaps, but it detracts from the unique appeal of Jarama, where the backmarkers have traditionally been the focus of the attention and it’s they who’ve always drawn the biggest applause.
