Jochen Hahn took his fifth triumph of the 2019 season in a red-flagged first race of the weekend at the Slovakia Ring…
Reigning champion Hahn took the fifth win of his this-years campaign aboard his Team Hahn Racing IVECO truck in a race that was red-flagged early on due to an incident that resulted in André Kursim burying his Don’t Touch Racing IVECO truck on the outside of Turn 2.
Hahn denied hard-charging Steffi Halm in yet another IVECO. The Team Schwabentruck entrant on both occasions made an excellent start from third on the grid and applied pressure to the leading truck of Hahn.
However, the first time around there was a coming together between Kursim and René Reinert with the younger of the two Germans coming off worse and burying his truck in the gravel.
Following the restart Halm looked very formidable and managed to get by Hahn on this occasion, passing the reigning champion in Turn 1.
Starting from fourth on the grid Adam Lacko, stayed out of trouble and was putting immense pressure on Halm in the closing stages of the race but Halm managed to keep the Czech racer at bay. Lacko, eventually, rounded out the podium.
Fourth went to Sascha Lenz who capitalised on a 10s penalty for Rene Reinert, who was running in front of him on the road, but was added to the Reinert Racing entrant's time. The driver of the blue IVECO who was classified eighth as a result.
Norbert Kiss in a Team Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz truck had an eventful race to eventually cross the line fifth having started second. First, the Hungarian was involved in an incident at the restart with Reinert and Antonio Albacete. The three squeezed each other on the straight, with Kiss sustaining a right rear puncture and Albacete bending his steering.
From then on Kiss had to nurse his truck. He was, however, involved in another incident, this time with Jamie Anderson and Oly Janes. Anderson's MAN got sandwiched between the Freightliner of Janes and the Mercedes of Kiss under braking.
Janes went into the back of Anderson and pushed the white MAN into the back of Kiss' Mercedes. As a result, Anderson suffered a puncture and retired from the race. The stewards declared it a racing incident.
Recuenco returns to winning ways
Sixth went to GRAMMER TRUCK CUP winner Luis Recuenco, who was also involved in the opening lap race-stopping accident and had to take evasive actions and go through the gravel.
The Spaniard finished directly ahead of the GRAMMER TRUCK CUP points leader Oly Janes in the second of the Buggyra Racing’s Freightliners, with Fabio Citignola (Team Tankpool24 Racing) and Eduardo Rodrigues (Reboconorte Truck Racing Team) both recording their first overall points finishes of the season. It was Recuenco's first triumph since the season-opening meeting at Miasno.
Dominique Orsini was the final finisher in 11th overall, while Hahn’s closest challenger in the title racer. Albacete recording a retirement as a result of bent steering sustained in a contact with Reinert at the restart.
Several incidents were under investigation by the stewards, including contacts between Janes and Citignola, Kiss and Anderson as well as last lap coming together between Citignola and Rodrigues. All the above were declared racing incidents and no further actions were taken.