Great Start for Tor in FIA European Championship Opener
The FUCHS sponsored Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing team made their debut in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship at the opening round in Hungary at the Hungaroring over the weekend of 12/13 July.
The fledgling team, competing in the elite area of truck racing motorsport, came into the event having a modified race truck which had undergone limited testing due to the covid pandemic, with the aims of being competitive not only in the full championship but also in the ‘Chrome’ class which driver Shane Brereton had been classified.
Brereton has experience of this class of racing being awarded the 2018 Grammar Cup title, the fore-runner to the newly titled ‘Goodyear Cup’.
The free practice sessions on the Hungaroring Circuit enabled the team to ‘shake-down’ the MAN race truck into racing condition, although problems were encountered with broken disc brakes eventually being diagnosed as faulty electronic sensors that were advising lower temperatures than the race truck was actually experiencing.
A lack of track time due to these issues saw the team record only 12th fastest time in qualifying thus missing out on the competition’s ‘Superpole’ session for the top ten drivers to determine the starting grid order for the first race of the weekend.
With very little time between qualifying and the first race, the team kept this set up, trusting the truck to gain ground over the course of the 11 lap race.
The Purple liveried truck made good progress, moving into eleventh place with a move on Andre Kursim on lap 3 and then battling for 9th place with Teo Calvet when race leader Norbert Kiss suffered a mechanical failure on the main straight, Brereton overcoming Calvet on Lap 6 which set up an intriguing tactical race involving Steffen Faas, Rene Reinert and Shane Brereton.
The Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing pilot eventually went past Reinert on Lap 10 to take 8th place overall and after the stewards had declared no further action in that investigation Brereton was placed 10th after the race due to a five second penalty following Reinert’s objection.
Race 2 was declared null and void following Steffen Faas’ accident due to the time to repair the Armco barriers and tyre barriers so the Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing team mechanics set about implementing tweaks to the set up gathered from the first race information.
Sunday offered greater optimism to the team as in warm up Shane Brereton hooked the MAN into race mode and a 7th best time overall, a result he was able to replicate in Qualifying and continuation for the first time into ‘Superpole’.
Changing track conditions saw the Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing MAN record only an 8th fastest time in this session but also resulted in an 8th place position on the starting grid for race 3.
With double points available in Races 1 & 3, this offered the team an opportunity to score heavily in both the Championship and also the Chrome category ‘Goodyear Cup’, it was a fascinating race as Shane Brereton moved into sixth place early on in the race only to find the experienced reigning FIA European Truck Racing Champion, Jochen Hahn, in defiant mood as he positioned his Iveco race truck as wide as possible to halt the progress of the Purple truck that had greater pace.
Hahn eventually made an uncharacteristic mistake approaching the chicane, going off track and returning in front of Shane Brereton which would eventually see Hahn demoted one position and promoting the Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing Team to an overall 5th place finish and victory in the ‘Goodyear Cup’ category.
Race 4 saw a reverse grid scenario with the Apollo Tyres TOR Truck Racing entry lining up third on the grid, this quickly became second in the race when Brereton went past Teo Calvet into turn one at the start of the second lap.
The faster runners in the field were making progress as firstly Adam Lacko found a way around the Purple MAN to relegate Brereton to third place and that became fourth place a lap later as the dominant Norbert Kiss passed him on his way to a second race victory of the day. Brereton held position comfortably ahead of the remainder of the field to finish the race in fourth place only 4.173 seconds behind race winner Kiss.
The result ensured a good weekend for the fledgling team as they recorded a second class victory and another appearance on the top step of the podium for the Goodyear Cup finishing the opening Round of the Championship on 16 points and leading the Goodyear Cup standings by four points as they prepare for the second round of the FIA ETRC in Nurburgring in July.
