Steffi Halm (Reinert Racing) claimed a fourth win of the FIA ETRC Season, and her second of the weekend, in a superb season-closer at Le Mans. Halm fought mightily with Ellen Lohr (Lutz Bernau Racing Team) for the lead of the race which had a six-truck train fighting for honours race-long.
Steffi Halm (Reinert Racing) claimed a fourth win of the FIA ETRC Season, and her second of the weekend, in a superb season-closer at Le Mans. Halm fought mightily with Ellen Lohr (Lutz Bernau Racing Team) for the lead of the race which had a six-truck train fighting for honours race-long.
Halm headed home Lohr, who led nine of the 11 laps, for a female one-two result, illustrating the importance of the FIA Women in Motorsport initiative and securing WOW Women on Wheels third place in the team championship.
Lohr’s MAN charged past pole-sitter Shane Brereton’s MAN on the run to the Dunlop Esses to take the lead, with Brereton being clipped by Steffi Halm at the second part of the sequence. That allowed Halm to move ahead as Brereton was nudged by Halm’s team-mate René Reinert (Reinert Racing MAN). That forced Bererton wide as Reinert moved up to third and worse was to come for Shane at the end of the lap as he was hit by Adam Lacko’s Buggyra International-run Freightliner and Brereton spun to last place.
As Lohr defended her lead, Halm vigorously attacked, taking Reinert with her, the trio then being joined by Lacko and Jochen Hahn (MAN) as they ended lap three. A five-truck fight became a scrapping six-pack as Gerd Körber’s Schwabentruck Racing Iveco joined the mix. Lacko came under pressure from Hahn as the race reached mid-distance, the Czech driver then starting to attack Reinert for third but remained trapped behind him.
Up front, Lohr defended her lead, sponge-like soaking up the pressure. Halm tried everything to find a way past until a dramatic penultimate lap shuffled the order. Halm made a move coming out of the tight left-hand turn five with the two running side by side to turn six. With Lohr back on the inside line for the right-hander, she edged up the inside of Halm and they continued their side by side run out of the corner. There they touched, but neither would give an inch and Halm retained the inside line for the next left-hander at which he secured the lead with Lohr tucking in behind.
Halm powered across the timing line to start the last lap eight-tenths of a second ahead, but Lohr still had a quarrelsome queue behind, headed by Reinert. She stood her ground to take second place and her best result of the season.
Reinert hung on to secure third place while Lacko’s disappointing trip to Le Mans ended with fourth place, his first winless weekend of the season. Champion Hahn took fifth place with the top six completed by Körber.
A lonely seventh was Sascha Lenz (SL Racing Team MAN) while a great battle for eighth was resolved in favour of Anthony Janiec (Lion Truck Racing Team) whose MAN had struggled for pace all day. Eventually, he found a way past Jiri Forman (Buggyra International Freightliner) to take the place, while the top 10 was rounded out by Frantisek Vojtisek’s Czech Truck Racing Team MAN.
After his spin, Shane Brereton took 11th ahead of Manuel Rodrigues (Reboconort Truck Racing Team MAN) and John Hemming’s Mercedes-Benz.
The 59,500 people headed to this historic circuit for the final round of the FIA ETRC 2016 championship and enjoyed a packed weekend of on and off track entertainment.
Provisional results only