Following Norbert Kiss’ first win of the year in race one this morning , it was Antonio Albacete who took race two claiming his first FIA ETRC victory since Le Mans in 2015.
Slovakia Ring, a new circuit for 2017 in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, seems to favour new winners. Following Norbert Kiss’ first win of the year in race one this morning , it was Antonio Albacete who took race two claiming his first FIA ETRC victory since Le Mans in 2015.
The emotional win came at the ideal moment for the Truck Sport Lutz Bernau driver as this weekend he is taking part in his 100th round of the FIA ETRC since the championship was established in its current incarnation in 2006. This season also marks a return for the Spaniard, as he was forced to sit out 2016.
Steffi Halm in her Reinert Racing MAN pushed Albacete all the way through the race, but didn’t manage to find a way through and had to settle for second, claiming her best result since round two of the championship held at Misano in May.
With the top eight from race one starting in reverse order, it was Gerd Körber who found himself in pole positon for race two . The Schwabentruck Iveco driver had André Kursim for company on the front row of the grid, with David Vrsecky and Antonio Albacete were just behind, occupying row two.
Soon after the start Albacete took the lead, followed by Steffi Halm who moved up from fifth on the grid to second, while Körber settled in to third.
Starting from seventh on the grid was Adam Lacko in his Buggyra International Racing System Freightliner quickly moved up the order. In the closing stages of the race the Czech racer finally found his way to third, while Gerd Körber dropped down to fifth, also losing out to Jochen Hahn and Norbert Kiss. The Hungarian however was given a 10-second penalty for overspeeding immediately after the start and ended up down in ninth position at the chequered flag.
Adam Lacko’s team-mate David Vrsecky, in the second of the Freightliners, again finished sixth, having achieved the same result in earlier in the day. Sascha Lenz in his SL Trucksport MAN finished seventh to collect more points.
Promotor’s Cup honours went to Steffen Faas (Schwabentruck Iveco), who took an opportunistic win after André Kursim, who was very much in control for most of the running, was forced to pit following a black flag with an orange disc being shown to him. This was due to loose bodywork touching one of his rear wheels. The young German pitted and the Tankpool24 Racing team rectified the problem but it cost him a likely second Promoter’s cup win.
Former Promoter’s Cup points leader José Rodrigues was forced to retire from race two with a technical issue.
Frankie Vojtisek took another podium in the Promoter’s Cup and also scored one final point for 10th place overall.
In the Teams’ results it was Team Reinert Adventures which took the maximum points ahead of Buggyra Racing 1969 and Die Bullen von IVECO Magirus.
The third and fourth races at Slovakia Ring will take place tomorrow at 13.10 and 16.35 respectively.