Norbert Kiss converted his pole position to take a well-judged win in the first race of the Nogaro weekend this afternoon.
Norbert Kiss converted his pole position to take a well-judged win in the first race of the Nogaro weekend this afternoon. Driving his new Tankpool24 Racing entered Mercedes-Benz, Kiss claimed a first win for his new team which he joined earlier this year.
The victory for Kiss gives the Hungarian hope of joining the challenge for the 2016 FIA ETRC title and ignite a potential three-way battle for the crown. Kiss’ maximum points haul today ensures he joins Anthony Janiec in equal fourth position in the standings on 56pts.
With point’s leader Adam Lacko following home Kiss in second place, and Jochen Hahn securing third position, it means that Lacko slightly extends his lead in the table, over Hahn, to seven points.
At the start of the 12-lap race, pole sitter Norbert Kiss just held on to the lead despite a serious attempt by Adam Lacko to find a way through.
Behind there was trouble as Rene Reinert, Steffi Halm and Jiri Forman came in to contact. Halm came off worst and her race was severely compromised by the incident as she had to be extricated from the gravel. She lost two laps and finished a distant 11th. The incident is under investigation.
Kiss’ Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz was soon able to make a small gap to Lacko’s Buggyra International System Freightliner ‘FatFox’. The Hungarian set several fastest laps to make the break over Lacko and by lap five the gap had stretched to 2.4 seconds.
From there Kiss controlled the pace to take a famous win by 3.078s and send the Tankpool24 Racing team in to ecstasy. The victory was the first win for the double champion since the third race at Jarama last autumn.
Adam Lacko was unable to do anything about Kiss’ pace and was forced to defend his second positon from a typically hard-charging Jochen Hahn. The German hustled the Czech driver for most of the race, but was unable to put a move on him and finished just 0.859s behind his nemesis at the chequered flag.
There was a sense of déjà vu in the battle for fourth place as local hero Anthony Janiec muscled his way past Rene Reinert on the first lap. The Lion Truck Racing driver then defended resolutely from a charging Reinert, the two putting on another epic battle, just as they did at Misano last month. However, Janiec was able to keep his golden MAN truck ahead by a mere 0.455s to delight his many home fans.
A fine sixth was Sascha Lenz, who capitalised on the first lap incidents to come through from ninth on the grid. Ellen Lohr secured more points with seventh position, the experienced German just falling short of putting a move on Lenz in her Truck Sport Lutz Bernau machine.
Claiming three points for his first score of the season was Portuguese veteran Eduardo Rodrigues who had a trouble free race to take eighth place. Rodrigues was ahead of Erwin Kleinnagelvoort and a recovering Jiri Forman, who ended the race ninth and tenth respectively to claim the final points.
The FIA ETRC Teams' silverware was provisionally taken by Tankpool 24 Racing, followed by Reinert Adventure pairing of Jochen Hahn and Rene Reinert from the Buggyra Racing 1969.
Race two is scheduled to begin at 16.50 local time. Follow all the action with live text, timing and the special Truck Tracker here