Adam Lacko won a fascinating first FIA European Truck Racing Championship race of the weekend this morning which was held under challenging wet conditions.
Adam Lacko won a fascinating first FIA European Truck Racing Championship race of the weekend this morning which was held under challenging wet conditions.
The Czech ace made his race winning move on lap nine when he hunted down Norbert Kiss’ Mercedes-Benz and pulled off a decisive manoeuvre. The win, his fourth so far this season, extended the Buggyra International Racing System driver’s points lead in the 2017 FIA ETRC title standings.
The race began under the FIA ETRC Mercedes Pace Truck due to the fully wet conditions, but soon the 21 strong grid was unleashed and Jochen Hahn led away from his hard-won pole position to lead.
But the man on the move in the opening exchanges was Lacko. The Czech made an early move on Antonio Albacete’s Truck Sport Lutz Bernau MAN at turn three to claim third position and made it a three-way fight for the lead. He then pressured both Kiss and Hahn and the trio circulated for many laps in a thrilling on-the-edge battle in the tricky conditions.
Lap six saw a sensational develop between all three and Lacko initially made a move through in to turn two, albeit only momentarily, as Kiss got the Czech driver back immediately on the ‘switchback’.
All this action allowed Albacete to get a run on Lacko and the two duelled in an immense side-by-side encounter down the pit straight, but Lacko held on.
Albacete completed his 100% points scoring record as he claimed fourth and actually raced Hahn all the way to the final corner but just fell short of appearing on the podium.
On the same lap, Kiss made his move on Hahn for the lead and the Hungarian opened up a small gap only to be then reeled back in by Lacko, who by then had already demoted Hahn down to third place.
Once Lacko completed his move on Kiss he was able to make a small gap and eventually took the chequered flag by a healthy 3.2 seconds.
Anthony Janiec took fifth position after a memorable drive in his Lion Racing MAN. The Frenchman scythed his way through the pack and was the fastest man on the track in the final stages of the race to cap an excellent performance.
Janiec finished ahead of Steffi Halm (Reinert Racing) who had a tough race at her home event but still took seventh placed points ahead of Gerd Körber, as he scored points for eighth in the race as he celebrates his 30th anniversary in truck racing. As a result of securing eighth, Körber starts from pole position for race two later this afternoon on the reverse grid rule.
David Vrsecky returned to the FIA ETRC with a fine performance and was on schedule to take points as he battled with Körber’s Schwabentruck in the final stages. However a 20-second penalty for over-speeding saw the Buggyra International Racing System driver drop to 12th place in the final classification.
In a frantic Promoter’s Cup battle, the silverware went to José Rodrigues who celebrated another maximum points score after a race long battle with André Kursim’s Tankpool24 Racing.
The Portuguese, who leads the standings from Kursim, only led part of the final lap of the race after a late move ensured he denied Kursim a first victory of the season.
Completing the podium in the new for 2017 Promoter’s Cup was Steffen Faas who made a superb debut in the second of the Team Schwabentruck Iveco’s.
The FIA ETRC Teams’ result saw Buggyra 1969 (Lacko and Vrsecky) triumph over Tankpool24 Racing (Kiss and Kursim), while Die Bullen von IVECO Magirus took the final rung of the podium.
The second of the two races at the ADAC Truck Grand Prix this weekend is scheduled to begin at 14.40 local time later today.