Rene Reinert reprised his race two win yesterday to take another victory at Jarama in the final race of the season....
Rene Reinert took the final victory of the 2018 FIA European Truck Racing Championship season at Jarama in Spain today.
The Reinert Racing MAN racer celebrated a well-judged and patient win to cap a successful weekend which saw him take two victories.
The race had echoes of yesterday’s second race as Brereton led Reinert in the early running under massive pressure from the German
The race saw a train of eight trucks from Brereton back to Antonio Albacete as the crowd was thoroughly entertained by the on-track battles. This bottleneck saw nose-to-tail action as those behind Brereton scrapped for position and more incredible pressure was applied on the TOR MAN driver.
The breakthrough for Reinert came on lap six when he squeezed through and took the lead. At the same time Jose Rodrigues [Reboconort], who had been holding a watching brief in third, also got passed Brereton and then started to hassle new leader Reinert.
Rodrigues dived this way and that to try and extract a mistake from Reinert but the German was resolute and took his fourth win of the season and his second of the weekend.
Steffi Halm ran wide on the first lap and fell from second to fifth position in her Team Schwabentruck IVECO but she soon made amends as she surged through to fifth place once Brereton started to fall back through the pack.
The tight snake of trucks started to break up with Halm coming under attack from Jochen Hahn’s IVECO. The double Jarama winner this weekend wanted to end the season with a podium position and tried tooth-and-nail to displace his fellow IVECO driver.
Adam Lacko took fifth position after a close battle with Antonio Albacete’s Trucksport Lutz Bernau MAN challenger throughout the second phase of the race. Albacete took sixth place and further confirmed his third position in the 2018 standings.
Behind this pair came Norbert Kiss (Tankpool24 Mercedes-Benz) and Sascha Lenz (SL Trucksport). Kiss put in a stellar drive form the back of the grid after suffering steering issues in race three. This inspired in to a tremendous charge which was rewarded by seventh position after he overtook Sascha Lenz in the closing stages.
For Lenz it was the end of a brilliant season and confirmed him as the only driver who claimed points in every one of the 32 races held this season.
Andre Kursim (Don’t Touch Racing IVECO) had been part of the leading train in ninth position but soon started to fall away when he lost his water tank and suffered braking issues.
Taking the GRAMMER CUP TRUCK spoils for the final time and notching up a remarkable 19thcategory victory of the season was Brereton.
He had to work for it though as he came under more pressure, but this time from Jamie Anderson (Anderson Racing MAN) and Steffen Faas (Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz).
This trio thrilled the crowd with some excellent action in the final laps but it was Brereton who held firm to take the GRAMMER spoils.
Anderson took second to cap a fine rookie season in the FIA ETRC, while Faas accrued enough points to seal second in the GRAMMER standings from Oly Janes who placed fifth.
Just ahead of Janes was Terry Gibbon who finished his season on a high with another fine showing in his T Sport MAN.
Once again, almost tied together, were Ray Coleman (LRS MAN) and Erwin Kleinnagelvoort (EK Truck Race Scania). The Anglo/Dutch pair had several run-ins earlier the weekend but this time it was Coleman who came out on top to grab sixth in class and 14thoverall.
Eduardo Rodrigues took eighth in GRAMMER ahead of Frans Smits and Jose-Eduardo Rodrigues.
The final finisher was Pedro Garcia Marco in his IVECO, while there was no happy ending to the season for local ace Luis Recuenco who was forced to retire after an excursion at turn one early in the race.
The teams’ points were taken by the Die Bullen von IVECO Magirus team of Hahn and Halm ahead of the Team Reinert Adventures duo of Reinert and Lenz.
The Reboconort team claimed third place thanks to Jose Rodrigues and his father Eduardo’s efforts today.
The plans for the 2019 FIA ETRC calendar are set to be announced in the comings days.
Race Result HERE