CALVET VICTORIOUS IN FRONT OF HOME CROWD
With the grandstands verging on full, Téo Calvet gave his home supporters something to cheer about taking double victory in the second race of the Le Mans weekend.
The Frenchman had started second on the reverse grid behind André Kursim, but it only took to the first corner for him to find a way past and take the lead. He had pressure from Jamie Anderson and Norbert Kiss throughout the race, with the trio spending most of the 11 laps nose-to-tail, but a mistake from Anderson at the end gave Calvet the breathing space to cruise home to victory, making it a double as he won both the Overall and Promoter's Cup.
Whereas Calvet’s start was easy, most of the grid behind him found themselves diving out of the way of other wayward trucks. Coming down the main straight, Sascha Lenz and Shane Brereton briefly came together, but this put the German enough off kilter to end up off the track at Dunlop Curve. As he rejoined the grid, although no contact was made, the trucks around him veered to get out of the way and avoid contact, causing four of them to spin in the midfield.
All trucks continued, but John Newell and José Rodrigues became casualties along with Lenz and Brereton.
No more than a few corners later and, once again, chaos reigned. This time it was Adam Lacko and Antonio Albacete who came together, with Albacete suffering enough damage that he would later become the only retiree of the race. The race stewards deemed that each were at as much fault as the other and they both penalised themselves, so no further action occurred.
Anderson had been looking to line up Calvet for another last corner move, something he perfected during the Most races, but with Kiss bearing down on him, there was very little room for error. The Brit had done very well in defending throughout most of the race and had managed to keep Kiss behind, but as he lined up Calvet, Kiss lined up him. It was wheel-to-wheel racing and Anderson got squeezed to the inside, going a little wide, but the pair were left to race and after a poor exit from the final corner Kiss managed to get the drag on Anderson to the chequered flag.
Behind the podium, which also made up the top two steps of the Promoter’s Cup podium, were Jochen Hahn in fourth and a well recovered Lacko to take fifth. Lenz, Steffen Faas – who took the last step of the Promoter’s Cup podium – Steffi Halm and Rodrigues completed the top ten. Brereton ended with no points in eleventh, with Clemens Hecker and John Newell completing the final order.
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