Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing AT MOST, Czech Republic
FREE PRACTICE 1
The Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing Team were forced to abandon their dry race set up only minutes before Free Practice 1 as persistent rain altered the nature of the circuit.
With little time to assess the changes made, Shane Brereton went out onto the circuit and ensured there was no drama as he posted 14th quickest time in the Apollo Tyres liveried MAN.
A time of 2:22.644 was the best time he achieved as the team struggled with brake balance temperatures.
‘After assessing all the data, I am really quite pleased with the initial performance, yes we had a few problems and we are looking at changing this for Free Practice 2’, was Brereton’s assessment of the first run on the Autodrom Most circuit.
‘We had no traction at times and that meant we were braking earlier than I would have liked, but the brakes were either too hot or too cold so we could not fully commit.’ The Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing Team pilot added.
‘We are carrying good speed through the corner but struggling with traction on the exit so we shall have a look at doing a few changes and see where that takes us’.
FREE PRACTICE 2
The Team went into Free Practice 2 with a few alterations but still with a wet set up as the track had not dried sufficiently to make the change to a dry setting.
But with just a light shower the track dried midway through the session and as teams lined up in the pit lane to make the necessary changes, the times started to tumble as the practice session reached its conclusion.
Shane Brereton went out onto the circuit and at one stage was as high as fifth in the timings but his final time of 2:05.298 saw him secure a place in the top ten, only 0.3 seconds separating 6th from 10th ahead of First Qualifying tomorrow morning.
It looks set to be a titanic battle behind the pace setters of Norbert Kiss and current Championship leader Sasha Lenz, as Steffi Halm, Anthony Janiec, Teo Calvet, Rene Reinert and Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing Team pilot, Shane Brereton, battling to be amongst it for Qualifying.
‘We had traction from the start of Free Practice 2 and it was far more enjoyable with a drying track where we could force more pace, I think there is more to come as we did not move to a fully dry set up, there were still patches where it was slippery around the circuit’, said the Apollo Tyres Tor Truck racing driver.
‘There was a great battle from 6th to 10th position, we were all changing places as the track dried and it was a shame the session ended when it did because we were in the process of trying to bring the tyres back to life to challenge again, but I am looking forward to qualifying if it is dry’.
QUALIFYING
The Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing Team went into Qualifying with the aim of extended that session into superpole and that was achieved as Shane Brereton recorded the eighth best time to position himself in the top ten shoot out.
Two points adrift of ‘Goodyear Cup’ leader Teo Calvet, Brereton chased down in the session and looked to record a better time than his main rival.
In the final dash for pole Jochen Hahn took the honours finishing 0.017 seconds ahead of Norbert Kiss with Sasha Lenz taking third place.
The battle for the remaining places was tight only for Calvet to produce a storming last lap to take 6th place and leave Antonio Albacete as the ‘meat in the sandwich’ with the Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing MAN in 8th.
RACE
The Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing Team had to settle for another second place podium finish in the Goodyear Cup as Teo Calvet followed up his first race success with another class victory after starting the reverse grid race in pole position before taking his second ever podium in the full championship.
Calvet, on Buggyra’s home track, fell behind Andre Kursim at the start but was holding his own before Norbert Kiss charged through the field and eventually passed Kursim on the last lap although the move is under investigation as he took a provisional second win of the weekend.
Further down the field the excitement centred on the Reinert, Brereton battle after Rene Reinert had pushed the Apollo Tyres Tor Truck Racing MAN on at the second corner to get ahead.
It was nip and took throughout before the German ran wide at the right hander approaching the start finish straight and Brereton took the opportunity to go up the inside (main picture) and secure his second ninth place finish of the weekend.
‘It was a tough race, we are getting better but we were perhaps a bit cautious on set up and we went softer than we should have done, it would have been better to have gone with a full dry set up as the circuit was dry within two laps’.
