KISS VICTORIOUS IN FRONT OF HOME SUPPORT
Norbert Kiss made the Slovakian fans go wild with Race 1 victory. Bradley Smith took his second Chrome class victory, taking advantage of Mark Taylor’s less than fortunate race.
It was clean off the start, all 15 trucks making it through the first corner, but an optimistic move from Taylor saw a collision between Steffen Faas and John Newell. Both trucks were able to continue, but due to the gravel trap on the outside of Turn 2, Newell was unable to get moving without outside assistance. This brought out a brief red flag, but as the first lap hadn’t been completed the whole race was restarted.
On the restart, Sascha Lenz and José Eduardo Rodrigues tried to utilise the outside line through Turn 2, but it was to no avail. All trucks continued, with Lenz losing P3 to René Reinert and Rodrigues dropping to the back of the Titan pack, P7.
These would be the two main fights of the race, as Lenz pushed to regain the podium position he’d started in and Rodrigues tried to get back in the fight. Lenz demoted Reinert with three laps to go, a clever move around the outside. Reinert tried to fight back, looking like he’d got a great run out of the final corner to optimise a better line down the main straight, but Lenz was able to hold him off. He shared the podium with Kiss and Jochen Hahn.
Antonio Albacete improved on his start position thanks to Rodrigres’ over-optimism in the second corner. He came across the line fifth, ahead of Steffi Halm who drove the perfect defensive race and mastered to keep a pushing Rodrigues behind.
Taking his second class victory and reverse grid pole for Race 2, Smith soared to another brilliant race win. It was all done off the start, getting a great launch from class P3 to overtake both Faas and Luis Recuenco before the end of the first lap.
Recuenco looked set for another class podium, but a tangling with Faas as he tried to moved back into class P2, overall nineth, proved costly. Trying to go around the outside of Turn 2, the Spaniard cut back in to try and get the racing line, but only half of his truck was past Faas. He managed to continue, but the truck suffered some heavy damage. He fell down the order to finish P14.
Steffen Faas looks to be having a much improved weekend, taking his first podium of the season. Smith and Faas were joined by Newell, who after the start he had was over the moon with the silverware.
Luke Garrett and Clemens Hecker benefited from Tayor’s five second penalty – given to him for causing the incident between Faas and Newell that caused the red flag. For the Chrome championship, the loss of points for Taylor really puts Smith in a strong position to get a bit of a lead in Chrome come the conclusion of Race 4 tomorrow.
Christian Ruppert completed the classification, with all 15 trucks taking the chequered flag.
Race 2 commences shortly, with Smith leading the grid over the line for only the second time in his Goodyear FIA ETRC career.
.jpg)
.jpg)
