Jochen Hahn delivered a masterclass in wet-weather racing at the Autodrom Most as he converted pole position into a dominant victory in Race 3.
Jochen Hahn delivered a masterclass in wet-weather racing at the Autodrom Most as he converted pole position into a dominant victory in Race 3.
The triple FIA ETRC champion had pulled out a 2.267 second gap over Adam Lacko’s Buggyra International Racing System Freightliner on lap one and continued to build his lead with every lap, showing exceptional commitment in the difficult conditions.
The gap between the two championship protagonists exceeded ten seconds by lap 7 and although Lacko rallied in the closing stages, he was unable to get close to Hahn’s MAN, who crossed the line with a winning margin of 8.641s.
Hahn’s seventh win of the year preserved his record of winning at least once at every round this year and extends his points advantage over Lacko to 12.
Behind them, René Reinert had to fight his way through from tenth to complete the podium after his Super Pole time was cancelled for overspeeding. The German’s race was set up by an excellent first lap in which he made up three positions, before passing Sascha Lenz for sixth on lap two.
Reinert them found himself on the back of a four-truck battle over third position, with the Lion Truck Racing MAN of Anthony Janiec chased by Steffi Halm and Gerd Körber, enjoying a much better run after two retirements in Races One and Two.
Despite some damage on the front of her MAN as a result of first lap contact with Janiec, Halm was visibly quicker than the French driver in the tricky conditions and made her move stick on lap six. Janiec then ran wide into the gravel trap and headed straight to the pits to retire, promoting Reinert to fifth behind Halm and Körber. However, the status quo wasn’t to last long as Reinert muscled past Körber’s Team Schwabentruck IVECO for fourth, before Halm ran wide and dropped to sixth behind the Tankpool 24 Racing Mercedes-Benz of Norbert Kiss.
Reinert therefore finished third ahead of Körber, but a 10 second penalty for overspeeding meant Kiss was demoted to sixth, behind Halm, in the final reckoning.
Lenz had a quiet race to seventh, while Jiri Forman took the all-important eighth and reversed grid pole for race two in the second Buggyra ‘FatFox’.
Ryan Smith recovered from a bad start to finish ninth ahead of compatriot Shane Brereton, who beat André Kursim to round out the point scorers in his repaired MAN.
Hahn’s dominant win and Reinert’s recovery drive meant Team Reinert Adventure were awarded the maximum points in the team championship ahead of Buggyra Racing 1969 pairing Lacko and Forman.
The final race of the weekend will commence at 17:25 local time this afternoon.