ETRC: Kiss finishes season on a high at Jarama

The 2022 Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship season concluded last weekend at Circuito del Jarama, a traditional end-of-season venue for the series

Norbert Kiss, despite securing his fourth European truck racing title at Le Mans the previous weekend, went on to finish his record-breaking campaign on a high in Spain.

The freshly crowned champion clinched two pole positions in as many days, was victorious in two of four races to accumulate a total of 51 points, and outscored the second-best driver of the Jarama weekend, Adam Lacko, by 13 points.

Lacko was Mr consistent in Spain, finishing fifth, third, second and fourth in the races held across the event, but despite recording a strong finish to his campaign, the 2017 title winner classified fourth in the final standings, 21 points down on the lowest step of the podium.

Indeed, it was the battle for the remaining two podium places in the final championship order that attracted the most attention at Jarama. Six-time title winner Jochen Hahn arrived in Spain with a 12-point advantage over his compatriot Sascha Lenz, who finished runner-up the championship last year.

Hahn scored hist best finish (a second place) in the opening race, but his weekend went downwards from that point. In Race 3, the German’s truck sustained damage in the opening-lap incident. The race was red-flagged and Hahn was unable to take the restart. On top of this, he managed a fifth and a seventh place in the remaining races that brought his points tally to a total of 25.

Lenz, was more consistent, scoring three fourth places before retiring in the final race of the weekend with a mechanical issue. The 35-year-old gathered 27 points over the course of the weekend, two better than Hahn, but in the final standings ended up 10 short of his more decorated rival.

Téo Calvet and André Kursim were the two drivers who shone at Jarama, both having their best events of seasons to date.

The young Frenchman took his second overall win of the year as well as recording his result in terms of total points (29), while Kursim bagged his first victory of 2022.