Shane Brereton claimed honors after a dominant drive in race four of the weekend in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship Round Six at Autodrom Most today.
Shane Brereton claimed honors after a dominant drive in race four of the weekend in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship Round Six at Autodrom Most today.
Starting from pole position on the semi-reversed grid, Brereton controlled the pace to run out the winner as a monster battle raged behind him for second place between eight trucks. It was David Vrsecky who came home second from Steffi Halm after a race-long fight.
Pole-sitter Brereton led away and benefitted from a rowdy first lap as there was drama behind him. David Vrsecky (Buggyra International Racing System Freightliner) and Sascha Lenz (SL Trucksport MAN) ran side-by-side through the first sequence of corners, with the place trading several times amidst contact. When the dust settled, after Lenz had been forced wide and dropped down the pack, Vrsecky held second spot from Steffi Halm (Reinert Racing MAN) and Norbert Kiss (Team Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz). At the end of the opening tour, Brereton had checked-out to the tune of four seconds!
Halm hit the back of Versecky on lap three but the Czech ace held a huge slide and kept the place, as Kiss waited for his turn to challenge for third against a frustrated Halm who was being held up by the defensive Vrsecky. All of this fighting delayed the pack and allowed Brereton to get away, but the line of rigs behind was joined by Antonio Albacete (Truck Sport Lutz Bernau MAN), Jochen Hahn (Team Hahn Racing Iveco), Adam Lacko (Buggyra International Racing System Freightliner), the recovering Lenz and Gerd Korber (Team Shwabentruck Iveco), up from 16th on the grid to ninth.
Brereton maintained a gap of just under five seconds at the halfway stage of the race, with Halm still frustrated by the wide Freightliner of Vrsecky, the gap to the leader widening at the end of lap seven as Brereton headed to a maiden FIA European Truck Racing Championship win, as well as sewing up the Promoter’s Cup.
“That was the race of my life,” said the British driver. “I could see them behind me and I knew the only person who could mess it up was me so I just had to keep focussed and not make mistakes.”
The order behind the Brit remained unchanged, despite the best efforts of everyone to prise open a gap, meaning Vrsecky claimed his best result of the season with second place ahead of Halm third, crucially outscoring Hahn in the fight for championship points. Kiss hung on to fourth from Albacete, Hahn, Lacko, Lenz and Korber, while race two winner Ryan Smith (Team OXXO Energy MAN) charged up to 10th from 17th, along with a sore wrist and bodywork borrowed from his mate Sascha Lenz after the damage the Brit sustained in race three.
Czech veteran Frankie Vojtisek took 11th place in his Czech Truck Racing Team MAN on the road ahead of Jose Rodrigues (Reboconorte Racing Truck Team MAN) but was given a 30-second penalty for a second overspeeding offence of the day. That dropped him to 15th, behind Rodrigues, the Renault of Grzegorz Ostaszewski, Erwin Kleinnagelvoort’s privateer Scania in 14th and Eduardo Rodrigues (Reboconorte Racing Truck Team MAN). With Vojtisek demoted to 15th, he was classified ahead of Maurice Monfrino’s bonneted Volvo, the French enthusiast having his first FIA ETRC outings since 2007.
