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Test days 2021 in Most

Test days 2021 in Most

24. April 2021Last week the 2021 season kicked into life with the first tests at Autodrom Most. First initiated by Team Hahn Racing, which has also coordinated the activity for several years now, usually four weeks before the first race, this year’s programme was up in the air till the last.
When, only six weeks before the dates contracted with Autodrom Most, the Czech Republic topped the table in Europe with a seven-day COVID incidence rate of more than 800 (per 100,000), the likelihood of the tests being allowed to go ahead seemed remote.
A test at Circuit Zolder in Belgium was in discussion as an alternative, even as the case rate in Czechia dropped precipitously as a result of ongoing measures (so that the actual incidence rate this last week was at 180), bringing the Autodrom back into the picture, albeit with stringent conditions. However, a travel restriction against British citizens left teams from the UK no option but to pull out. Meanwhile, the slot at Zolder was snapped up by some series else, and the financial hurdle erected by the journey restrictions to Most started to look insurmountable.
At short notice a few teams from other series stepped in to help share the costs – but by now some of the truck teams had redrawn their plans and elected for other test opportunities. Last year, despite several postponements, a good 12 trucks still made it to Most; this time round only five.
From Germany were the two Iveco teams Hahn Racing and Schwabentruck, with Jochen Hahn and Steffi Halm, and Clemens Hecker’s MAN outfit. They were joined by two Buggyras shared between Adam Lacko, Aliyyah Koloc (both CZE), and Frenchman Téo Calvet.
The pilots lapped the relatively empty track altogether unimpeded, but you never got the impression that they were going flat out – or laying all their cards on the table, so to speak. The times were all over the place, and even on their fastest laps it appeared they could have done better.
Not one truck covered any extended stretch at a go – most were out for only a couple of laps at a time, returning to pit lane to be tinkered with and fine-tuned at length. No hurry, no sweat. With great weather and time in abundance, no option was overlooked in the quest for an optimal setup.
Lacko and Calvet took turns in the former’s truck, both lapping at the same level. Calvet’s machine is in the south of France, where another test session has been scheduled at Circuit Paul Armagnac in Nogaro for next weekend. There, teams from the Championnat de France Camions will be joined by Buggyra and others from the ETRC that weren’t able to make it to Most.