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Barcelona – this and that

Barcelona – this and that

15. April 2006Everybody thought highly of the Buggyra Freightliners, and these expectations were fully justified. Especially the way David Vrsecky marked his fastest times was rather impressive. Whether the fears (or rather the hopes) of his fellow combatants regarding the stability of the engines with the two-stage turbo charging will come true, we'll see in Albacete at the latest, if there are the same grilling temperatures as last year. And the Mercedes-Benz team seemed to be satisfied, too. Jochen Hahn had not thought to hold his own so well, neither would they have thought that Markus Oestreich could take a place on the podium at this early stage. For MAN, Antonio Albacete fulfilled the expectations with his victory at the 2nd CupRace. Not so happy was the team of Markus Bösiger. During the tests in Nogaro the man from Switzerland was almost always faster than the others; however, without the soot filter. But for the races MAN requires those filters for all race trucks having an official MAN factory engine. And suddenly the Bösiger MAN slowed down a bit. On Saturday, the team still hoped that after changing the differential they would again be on a par with the others, but then they had to realize that the other TGA were, in fact, more powerful - the talk was about 10 percent. <br />
Now they have 7 weeks left - until the race in Misano - to solve this problem.<br />
And also the MAN of Markus Altenstrasser gives team leader Egon Allgäuer some trouble. In Nogaro during the tests a turbo burst and in Barcelona this happened a second time to the yellow race truck. <br />
What annoyed all the teams was that again the paddock had to be vacated already on Sunday evening, which is against all traditions in the truck racing sport in Europe. Nowhere else that’s the custom except in Barcelona. But for the following Tuesday the Formula 1 had reserved the Circuit de Catalunya for tests. Some F1-Teams started already on Sunday evening with the erection of their equipment, and the Renault team thought they had to start even on Saturday, so they manoeuvred their huge trailers over the crowded, narrow paddock.<br />
More trouble gave the - in some parts - rather rugged ground of the paddock. Car washing is one of the favourite activities - not only at truck racing. Whenever they return from the track, the race truck is thoroughly cleaned until it looks spick-and-span. After all, the stickers of the sponsors must be in plain view. <br />
Most of the time the waste water flows off rapidly into some drainage pipes, but this time there were puddles about 2 inches deep all over the ground. One of the service teams had to use planks and rubber mats to be able to enter their trailer. <br />
And the uneven ground was a reason for a further annoyance. As we know, Markus Oestreich did not get 7 points, because his truck was 5 kilos underweight at the front axle. <br />
The scale of the Euroline team which, quote: was balanced and stood on an even ground, showed the necessary 3,400 kilos. The FIA scale, however, stood on a slightly ascending ground of the paddock, thus causing the weight to shift from the front axle to the rear. <br />
But why didn't they reverse the truck and put it on the scale once more backwards? If, in that case, the scale would have shown the correct weight or even more at the front wheels, the technical delegates of the FIA would have seen there was something wrong with the first outcome.