ALBACETE BACK ON TOP IN MISANO RACE FOUR
Race Four gifted a new winner for the 2023 Goodyear FIA ETRC as Antonio Albacete took his first win of the season. It had looked like José Eduardo Rodrigues would take his first overall win as he led most of the race, defending from Steffen Faas, who both joined Albacete for the final overall podium of the weekend.
Rodrigues held position off the line and, even though Faas was right behind, he handled the pressure well to maintain the position for half of the race. It was Albacete making the decision to progress that saw the two Promoter’s Cup drivers dropped from the lead. Rodrigues stayed with Albacete until the chequered flag.
The battle for fourth occupied most of the second half of the race, as Jochen Hahn and Norbert Kiss attempted to move up the field.
Kiss had been held off by Hahn after dispatching Lenz within the first lap, but the pair of them struggled to move ahead of Clemens Hecker and John Newell, giving Albacete a chance to extend his lead to be untouchable.
When they did pass the Chrome drivers, they found themselves in a battle with Steffi Halm to try and take fourth position. Hahn made the pass on track, but Kiss could not find the gap to demote Halm from fifth. However, Halm was handed a five second penalty for overspeeding and so dropped behind Kiss and Newell in the final result.
Newell drove another strong race in a truck with, self-admitted, some work needed, to secure his third Promoter’s Cup podium of the weekend and sixth in the overall standings.
Hecker did not get promoted by Halm’s time penalty so remained eighth overall ahead of André Kursim and Mark Taylor who rounded off the top ten.
Johnathan André was 11th ahead of Sascha Lenz after Lenz had made contact with Kursim. Moving to overtake, Lenz locked the rear axle and was unable to make the turn, hitting Kursim instead. He further penalised himself whilst trying to recover the lost positions by getting a drive-through penalty for hitting three penalty markers.
Luis Recuenco did not start the race after suffering damage from Race 3. The Spaniard hit a penalty marker that hit the underside of his truck, causing a lot of damage and forcing him to retire from the first race of today. The damage could not be repaired in time for him to make the start of Race 4.
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