Calvet second in Most, Lacko getting faster
The FIA European Truck Racing Championship Digital have entered its second half with the race at Autodrom Most. Home soil for the Buggyra Zero Mileage Racing team meant even harder fights for every centimeter of the tarmac.
The fifth event of the digital trucking series was filled with drama from the qualification onwards. Nineteen years old Téo Calvet, who have set his first real life laps around Most autodrom only a few weeks back, have fought his way through to the top 3 fastest drivers. His success wasn’t meant to be though and shortly before the qualification have ended Téo’s lap time was canceled for track limits violation and he dropped down to 5th place. Adam Lacko have also struggled during the Super Pole as he wasn’t able to set the same times, he was setting during practice earlier that evening and ended qualifying nineth.
The troubles for the Buggyra duo have continued even on the start of the race 1. Adam Lacko was struck by connection issues just before the lights went out, so he didn’t hear the “GREEN GREEN GREEN” starting signal and he lost numerous car lengths on the rest of the field. Téo Calvet had a great start and was fighting for the top spot in the first corner. However, he came out worst from the scramble that happened in the first chicane and dropped way down behind his teammate who thanks to his delayed start have avoided all the first corner carnage and jumped up three places. However, Téo Calvet, the youngest driver ever to win in a truck race competition didn’t give up and soon began to gain lost places back.
“I have really enjoyed the first race. Even though the race is only virtual and there are no spectators, I still see it as my home race, so I was even really looking forward to todays races. I can say I feel that I have improved, after all I was finally able to drive from the cabin view not the 3rd person one and I am getting faster every time we race, so I am satisfied with todays race,” said Adam Lacko about his first race on Autodrom Most racetrack. “Of course, Téo is still faster than me, so when I saw him making a move, I left him plenty of space to get in front and then I was copying his line and braking points to get faster with him. When he overtook me, I was hoping that we would finish 7th and 8th so we would both start from the first row at our home race, that would be great. In the end Téo managed to gain one more place, so we will start behind each other, but it should be pretty interesting too,” commented the 2017 ETRC Champion.
The second race was again red flagged after a massive collision in the first chicane right after the start. Although this was the first time Adam Lacko have benefited from race restart as he was pushed out to the gravel trap and have dropped down to the very last place. “As usual I got hit and pushed wide, but luckily there was a restart and that went much smoother,” said Lacko starting from the first place. “I don’t know why but during the restart Anderson was driving a whole car length in front of me. I knew it is duty to slot next to the leader, so I didn’t try to catch up to him. Sure, he got to the first corner ahead of me, but he got penalized for incorrect starting position after which he stopped and just left,” described Adam his start of race 2. “Téo got ahead of me and, with Anderson gone, was first. I was second and right behind me was Norbert Kiss. So, I worked my best to slow Norbert down and give Téo time to drive away and maybe take another win. But in the end, Norbi got ahead of both of us, which is a shame but I still am satisfied with both mine and Téo’s performance today. I am getting more used to the virtual truck and subsequently getting faster and that’s good,” summed up Lacko.
In the end Buggyra took one eight, two sixth and one podium, silver finish by Téo Calvet from its first virtual race on home soil. Aliyyah Koloc didn’t compete at virtual Most autodrom as she was physically preparing for the start of the ETRC 2020 season at 29th of august at Autodrom Most.
