An incredible drive from fifth on the grid saw Adam Lacko take his first win of the season
Heavy rain caused the start of the second Zolder race to be delayed and the first two laps to be run under yellow flag. Thanks to her eighth-place finish earlier today, Stephanie Halm led the field away when the track finally turned green.
She had used the yellow flag time well to build herself a 2.5s lead on the rest of the grid, but it wasn’t enough to defend from Lacko, who was on a mission to take the lead of the race. Some daring overtakes saw him passing André Kursim, René Reinert and Téo Calvet with ease, sitting on the back bumper of Halm’s truck by the third lap.
Once Lacko had got past Halm, he disappeared down the road with no challengers to end the race. Halm held off the fighting pack behind her to take the second step of the podium, whilst a mistake from Antonio Albacete and Reinert gave Calvet overall third and his second first in the Goodyear Cup today.
One of the biggest battles of the race was between Norbert Kiss and Jamie Anderson, with Anderson giving the Hungarian driver a hard time in getting past. With championship rival Sascha Lenz ahead, Kiss was desperate to pass Anderson so he could start closing the growing gap between them. Anderson defended well, and although there was some contact between the pair, it was deemed fair racing. Kiss did manage to make the pass, but he didn’t get a chance to fight Lenz for position.
Reinert held third on the road competitively throughout most of the race, but in the closing stages Albacete had drawn him in and was looking to make the pass. It looked like Albacete made the move stick with two laps to go, but they both went off track in the wet conditions.
André Kursim took advantage of the trucks flying off track to secure fourth across the line.
Albacete and Reinert managed to continue and finish the race, but the Spaniard fell from fourth to seventh, where he finished the race. Reinert finished fifth ahead of Lenz in sixth.
Behind Calvet, who appeared on both the overall and Goodyear Cup podiums, the promoter’s cup class was filled with Brits as Shane Brereton led Anderson across the line for ninth and tenth overall, second and third in class.
Jochen Hahn had a quiet race, unable to recover much after his penalty-given 12th place start, he finished 11th.
Steffen Faas was 12th, leading Aliyyah Koloc and Luis Recuenco over the line as the final finishers.
Heinrich-Clemens Hecker was again unable to start after his issues in qualifying, and Luke Garrett was forced to retire from the race after a loss of power around lap 3.
Kiss still leads the championship at the end of the day, but his hopes to extend his lead on second-placed Lenz were stalled, now with only three points separating them.
Today’s victory saw Lacko jump to third in the championship, and it’s all to race for tomorrow as he is only 15 points behind Kiss.
Results of race 2 HERE