German truck-racing legend Jochen Hahn claimed his fourth European Truck Racing Championship title at the ETRC’s final round in France on October 29-30. In the opening race of the weekend on Le Mans’ Bugatti Circuit, Hahn’s victory was enough to clinch the title over Czech driver Adam Lacko after an arduous back-and-forth season between the two. Hahn sweetened the deal by wining the weekend’s third race, which also happened to be his 100th career ETRC victory.
The second race, which featured a reverse grid of the top 8 trucks, was an unfortunate mess that featured a red flag when a nasty conflict sent two trucks into the Le Mans gravel. The following restart turned into a minor disaster with a huge pile-up on the start/finish straight. That brought out a second red flag. Local driver Anthony Janiec was first past the flag but was disqualified after the race, giving the race win to Stephanie Halm.
Hahn battled with defending champion Norbert Kiss in Race 3’s opening lap, but a spectacular turbo failure put Kiss out of the race and allowed Hahn through for Win #100. In the season’s final race, Halm overtook Ellen Lohr late in the race for the win. Halm held off Lohr to take her second win of the weekend and that result marked the first time two women have stood on the ETRC podium this year. It was Lohr’s best career finish, as well.
In the end, Hahn outscored Adam Lacko by 55 points with Reinert Racing’s Rene Reinert a distant third but just 21 points ahead of his teammate Halm.
