LUKAS HAHN TAKES SECOND OVERALL VICTORY
Following his stellar performance from last year’s Nürburgring Race 2, Lukas Hahn converted his reverse pole position into overall victory.
Hahn, Jamie Anderson and Steffen Faas had all undergone repairs ahead of the second race of day one, but all 15 trucks made it to take the start of the race. It was a fantastic start from Hahn to hold of second-placed Steffi Halm and retain the lead going into the first corner.
Early braking from from José Eduardo Rodrigues, starting fourth, caught out the Titan drivers behind the Portuguese driver and saw half the field diving off track to avoid incident. As the dust was thrown up once again to start the race, it was impressive to see, despite the carnage, all 15 trucks continued.
This put a bit of a delay to Norbert Kiss’ advances through the field, ending up 11th on track after the first lap incident. All drivers involved were put under investigation, but the stewards deemed no further action was needed.
The rest of the race unfolded with little incident, but nose-to-tail racing up and down the grid. Hahn held strong at the front, defending from advances from Halm and Jamie Anderson. The duo held onto second and third to the chequered flag, taking both of their respective first podiums of the season behind Hahn. Hahn’s father Jochen could have possibly put pressure on Anderson to make it an all IVECO podium, but the advancing Kiss in his rear-view mirror kept his attention on defending rather than attacking come the final few laps.
It was a good recovery drive from Kiss, who ended the race fifth behind Jochen Hahn.
Mark Taylor seems to have found his groove around the Polish track, putting in yet another great display of racing to take another Promoter’s Cup podium. He managed to hold Kiss behind for a lap and a half before yielding the position, and had a close race with André Kursim to the chequered flag. He finished seventh overall behind Kursim, just under three seconds ahead of third place in Promoter’s and eighth overall John Newell.
Newell certainly had a good second race of the day, but admitted that the team had some things to work on overnight to come back more competitive for the second day of racing at TOR Poznań. The same case applies to Steffen Faas who, albeit finishing fourth in class, ninth overall, once again had to stop his truck just after the chequered flag due to more suspect turbo failures (the reason for his retirement in Race One).
Where Newell ended eighth overall, third in class, despite issues, Faas could do no better than 11th overall, fourth in class just ahead of championship rival Rodrigues, which was not the haul of points he was looking to gain on the Portuguese driver after failing to finish the first race of the event.
Sascha Lenz and Antonio Albacete found themselves stuck in a train behind Newell in the closing stages of the race, something neither of them could overcome. Lenz had to settle for tenth overall whilst Albacete ended the race in the pits due to black smoke coming from his truck. In the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship, trucks releasing black smoke must come into the pits and fix the issue as this is against the sustainability efforts the championship is making.
Johnathan André was also subject to a black and orange flag for black smoke, but he manage to return to the track to classify on the lead lap.
Clemens Hecker and Luis Recuenco completed the classification, 12th and 13th respectively.
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