Race two of the fifth round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship this afternoon saw Steffi Halm score her second win of the season
Race two of the fifth round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship this afternoon saw Steffi Halm score her second win of the season and a second consecutive victory at the Hungaroring, having scored her inaugural FIA ETRC victory here in 2015.
The reverse pole winner after the race one result – Frankie Vojtisek (Czech Truck Racing Team) led for the first two laps but soon the pressure from Steffi Halm told and the lead changed as they entered the third lap.
Immediately Halm pulled clear and opened up what proved to be a race winning gap. The Reinert Racing driver using the fact Vojtisek was delaying the chasing pack to her advantage. She won the race with plenty in hand and crossed the finish line a huge 16.784s ahead of her opposition to register a third win in the FIA ETRC.
The opening laps saw some excellent and typically entertaining truck racing action with Vojtisek using all his experience to defend his second position in determined style. But once Norbert Kiss was passed Adam Lacko (Buggyra International Racing System) and Gerhard Körber (Team Schwabentruck), he set after Vojtisek but was ultimately unable to make a move
It all came to a head with two laps remaining when a charging Jochen Hahn attempted a move on the inside of third placed Kiss going in to Turn 12, but the two made contact and in the process delayed Adam Lacko. This gave Vojtisek a breather, but only for a short time, as Anthony Janiec (Lion Truck Racing) then joined the attempt to get second position.
The recovering Kiss then made another brilliant move at the final corner as he dived down the inside of Janiec to re-claim third position. A charged-up Kiss then re-engaged in battle with Vojtisek and on the final lap as the pair exited the last corner contact was made when Kiss tapped the rear of the white MAN truck, pitching the unfortunate Vojtisek hard in to the pitwall just a few metres short of the finishing line.
Remarkably this was not the end of the drama as Janiec beat Kiss to second place after the Hungarian lost momentum after his collision with Vojtisek. The gap between Janiec and Kiss was just 0.076s as the crowd gasped at the drama they were witnessing. Kiss was officially reprimanded after the race for causing a collision.
Adam Lacko was able to reduce Jochen Hahn’s advantage in the quest for the 2016 FIA ETRC title by two points as he finished in fourth position. Between himself and Hahn in fifth place was race one podium visitor Ryan Smith who had a tough second event when he dropped down the field after an early incident and spin. But the British racer fought back with typical gusto and crossed the finish line in a fighting fifth place.
FIA ETRC young guns Jiri Forman and André Kursim came home seventh and eighth with Forman almost catching Jochen Hahn on the line to grab sixth.
Shane Brereton took ninth position after a solid drive to bring cheer to his hardworking team who fixed a mechanical problem on his MAN truck.
There was early drama again in race two as an incident involving Ellen Lohr (Truck Sport Lutz Bernau) and Sascha Lenz accounted for Lenz who has so far endured a miserable weekend after two non-finishes. Lohr was delayed and despite a spirited fightback just missed out on a point to Erwin Kleinnagelvoort.
Dominique Orsini was the only other truck to cross the finish line as he took his self-run Mercedes-Benz to 12th position.
Wow! Women on Wheels took the teams’s maximum score with Steffi Halm and Ellen Lohr’s combined result today. Norbert Kiss and Andre Kursim from Tankpool24 Racing claimed second while the Buggyra 1969 pairing of Adam Lacko and Jiri Forman claimed third position.
The FIA ETRC now takes a deep breath after a spectacular first two races but reconvenes tomorrow with race three scheduled for 14.10 and the final event at 17.00 local time.