Sascha Lenz took the first win of the season with a huge 9.9 second gap to second place Jochen Hahn. Adam Lacko completed the podium in third.
The first race of the season provided for some drama, as local hero Norbert Kiss suffered a turbo pipe failure and had to retire from the race lead.
Kiss, who lead all practice sessions and qualified on pole, got off to a good start pulling a gap to Lenz in second. However a few laps in, the red MAN of Kiss started to slow down, with smoke coming out under the truck, and he dropped back through the grid. The Hungarian suffered a failure with the turbo pipe which resulted in a loss of boost pressure and had to retire early from the race.
Lenz lost no time to pull away from Hahn and Lacko behind him. The German was flying in his green MAN, making up time on each lap. In the end Lenz crossed the line nearly 10 seconds clear of second place to secure his first victory of the season.
Adam Lacko, who started from fourth on the grid managed to get past Jochen Hahn and the pair got into a tight battle. They made contact, which caused parts of Lacko’s body work to come off, but Hahn managed to keep the upper hand and in the end finished on the podium ahead of his Czech rival.
Antonio Albacete had shown good speed in the morning’s practice session and started the race from sixth. The Spaniard made his way past Team Schwabentruck’s Steffi Halm to finish race 1 in fourth place.
British racer Jamie Anderson in his brand new MAN truck started the race from 11th on the grid. He worked his way up the ranks and caught up with Steffen Faas. He made short work of the German to take the win in the Goodyear Cup and finished sixth overall.
Shane Brereton, who returns to the ETRC grid for another season of truck racing, showed that he hadn’t lost any of his grit seen in previous seasons. He started in 12th position and quickly got past Téo Calvet and René Reinert infront of him.
He caught up to Steffen Faas and the pair got into a great battle in the closing stages of the race, fighting closely for position but in the end the Brit wasn’t able to get past the SCANIA driver. Faas secured second place in the Goodyear Cup.
Brereton received a 5-second penalty post race for causing a collision with René Reinert, which put him into tenth position in the final classification.
René Reinert and Téo Calvet put on a great battle for position. Calvet struggled with grip in his Freightliner and couldn’t quite take the fight to the German driver, he finished behind Reinert in ninth place, and due to Shane's penalty, Téo secured third in the Goodyear Cup.
Aliyyah Koloc finished the first race of the season just outside of the Top 10 ahead of Clemens Hecker in 12th.
Andre Kursim suffered a broken brake disc and had to turn off his truck and ETRC newcomer Tom O’Rourke too had to retire his MAN from the race.
RACE RESULTS