HARD FOUGHT WIN 13 FOR KISS
Norbert Kiss has taken his 13th win after a nail-biting last-lap showdown with Jochen Hahn.
It had looked like it was the day the Nüburgring fans had been waiting for as, off the start, Jochen Hahn swept past Kiss to take the lead of the race. A suspect gear box issue caused Kiss to drop top P4 as the trucks came over the line for the third time this weekend, with the reigning champion explaining he had tried to select gear but the MAN truck failed to do so. He managed to keep the truck moving and find the gear, continuing into Race 3.
It didn't take Kiss long to be back past Sascha Lenz and José Eduardo Rodrigues, back on the rear bumper of Hahn to look at retaking the lead. For most of the race it looked like Hahn was doing enough to take home victory, but a small mistake in the 11th lap saw Kiss ready to pounce, optimising to get ahead. Hahn tried to retake the lead on the switch back as the trucks moved through the chicane, but Kiss had a better exit than him from the previous corner.
Lenz had a quiet race to take another podium, finishing P3 and extending his lead over Antonio Albacete in the overall championship standings. He hovered around seven tenths off the back of the Kiss/Hahn battle until Lap 9 when he fell back to cross the line just over four seconds behind the lead duo.
A fantastic race from Rodrigues saw him take fourth overall, first in Chrome class and extend his class lead over Steffen Faas and Mark Taylor. Apart from his first lap battle with Kiss, Rodrigues too had a quiet life to lap around and take one of his best results of the season. Lukas Hahn came across the line fifth overall, second in class, but seemed to have nothing to challenge the Portuguese driver, taking the flag five seconds after the Chrome winner.
André Kursim benefited from a bad race for Albacete, taking sixth on the line. He had to work to keep the Spaniard behind him in the closing moments of the race, but he did enough to finish ahead. Albacete's seventh place will put him on reverse grid front row for Race 4, starting second, alongside Steffi Halm who once again takes reverse grid pole. It was a race for both Albacete and Halm to forget. The duo will certainly be looking at the data to work out what didn't quite click in Race 3 to make sure they can optimise their front row start in the final race of the weekend. Halm will be aiming to repeat her performance from Race 2 yesterday.
Taylor completed the Chrome podium with an overall P9, Faas rounding off the top ten and overall point scorers in tenth. For the Chrome championship, beating Faas has really brought Taylor into the second-place fight with the German, now trailing by under 20 points.
John Newell was 11th overall, fifth in class, but not scoring in the overall championship has put Taylor and Faas ahead of him in those standings. He trails Taylor now in Chrome, sitting a comfortable fourth ahead of the rest of the competition. He'll be looking to finish on a high and use the summer break to get the momentum back from the beginning of the season, if he's to challenge for the top three places in class.
Luis Recuenco finished where he started in 13th, leading Jonathan André, Bradley Smith and Luke Garrett across the line to make it another full 16-truck grid being classified.
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