Steffi Halm eagerly continues to collect points for the ETRC!

In Nogaro (Southern France), the third event of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship 2014 took place on the Circuit Paul Armagnac – a home match for the Lion team.

In front of almost 36,000 spectators and with track temperatures sometimes reaching up to 59°C, things didn’t work out as well for the young German Amazon as they did at the last event in Navarra. Nevertheless, she was able to score points for her championship ranking and even managed to increase the gap to the competitors ranking below her on the overall standings.

The Lion Truck Racing team arrived in Nogaro with a total of three MAN race trucks. Besides Steffi Halm, the Spanish driver of the team, Javier Mariezcurrena, also participated at the FIA ETRC event while Artur Ardavichus from Kazakhstan represented the team at the Coupe de France.

The number of visitors was accordingly large. The Lion team was on site with two workshop tents and a catering trailer. Moreover, it presented itself to its guests with an own VIP lounge.

True Lion fans were able to get fan articles at the boutique.

On Friday evening, there was a parade of all of the race trucks through the idyllic downtown of Nogaro. Especially Steffi was permanently surrounded by autograph hunters during the parade.

On Saturday, however, things got pretty serious. During the qualifying, Steffi Halm once again achieved a SuperPole rank among the top ten. However, Steffi wasn’t too lucky with her good starting position. Right in the early stages of the race, she was pushed off the track, thus fell back and yet she managed to rank 13^th within the field of 20.

Javier Mariezcurrena slightly benefited from her collision and levelled up to position 12.

At the second race, Steffi was already doing a great job levelling up when the race was stopped and cancelled after an accident at the third lap. The Portuguese pilot José Teodosio and his truck pushed Mariezcurrena’s MAN onto a tyre barrier. This accident forced the Spanish pilot to drop out of the race.

After the restart, Steffi levelled up to the eighth position with brilliant performance!

At the qualifying on Sunday, the young German once again performed well and won the ninth starting position at the SuperPole. Right after the start, she fell back some positions but then fought hard and regained her ninth position. As a consequence she missed the pole position of the final race by just one position.

Mariezcurrena finished the race on position 13.

At the final race of the FIA ETRC event, Steffi once again dropped back some positions during the skirmish at the starting phase. During the race though, she levelled up again and finally finished the race on tenth position and thus earning points. Javier crossed the line right behind her ranking eleventh.

This year, Artur Ardavichus wants to fully focus on improving his circuit-race racing performance. He has many years of experience as a rally pilot, but in terms of circuit-race competitions he is still a novice.

With the help and support of technicians, the other pilots and a well-working data analysis, he already accomplished great improvements this year: Originally not even among the top ten, he now ranks amongst the top six of the French Cup. On Saturday, he achieved the fifth position at the qualifying and then performed even better at the race itself. In the end, he won the 3^rd position on the podium thanks to constant and fast lap times!

On Sunday, Ardavichus levelled up some positions at the first race and missed the second podium position by just one rank as he finished fourth.

At the last race of the weekend, he was already second, when he had to go through the pit lane. As a consequence he fell back to the end of the field. Nevertheless, he fought hard afterwards and finally levelled up from position 20 to 11.

An action-packed and successful weekend thus drew to an end. The team will now start the preparations for the races in Spielberg and on Nürburgring, where the team pilot Jean-Pierre Blaise will race for the team for the first time!

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