Thursday, 28.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Most – This and That

Most – This and That

01. September 2006Ten weeks after the last race where points could be scored for the European Championship there was now the next truck race in Most. Although the interlude “International Masters Germany” on the occasion of the Truck GP on the Ring was one of the fiercest contests of this season with a lot of damage in material – partly caused by external circumstances – at least all the top teams were present in Most. Two things were the main topics in the paddock: Why on earth didn’t the stewards stop the Cup race last Saturday? And what came over the pilot of the helicopter to fly that low over the circuit with a camera team during the truck racing?
It seems the FIA officials do not trust Markus Oestreich a lot. It never happened before, that, in the middle of a race, the head technician was ordered to check a broken down truck to make sure it was really so battered it couldn’t go on. If Oese had actually wanted to provoke a stop of the race without some good reason, the stewards would have had a lot of possibilities to impose sanctions – even a disqualification. The cause of the failure of the Mercedes Axor, a tattered steel rope, was demonstratively held in front of the TV camera by race engineer Franz Deckenbach that evening. Evidently, it also escaped the stewards’ notice that, as a result of the numerous crashes, dangerous parts were scattered all over the track, causing the failure of some more trucks when the race went on. Who would have paid for the damages had some other truck crashed into the Mercedes Axor still sitting on the track?
And it is not yet clear who is going to answer for the damage the chopper pilot caused while circling around the paddock during Saturday’s races. Several tents were whirled up and some of them were severely damaged. And also parts of the body works of the sports cars were swirled about, and it was sheer luck that nobody got hurt. The drivers of the sports cars alone raise a claim of far more than 10,000 Euros, but all the damages caused were not listed yet.
A bit irritating and certainly not according to the rules was the fact that the GPS transponders for monitoring the speed limit were installed in the trucks only after the respective free practices were completed. So snatches of talk could be overheard like: “… I was speeding along the straight at 180 kmph and suddenly so-and-so was shooting past me.” (Mind you, in truck racing the permissible speed is 160 kmph).
This year the two mandatory topless models didn’t turn up at the press event, but all the young ladies strolling along the paddock and the pit lane during the weekend made up for the loss. A lot of attention got the two girls whose “clothes” – apart from some tight-fitting panties – consisted of nothing but body colour.
The journalists do not abandon hope that soon at the Autodrom Most there will be an internet available which will be working without problems. Several times the net failed, but fortunately the administrator responsible for the network was always available to clear the malfunction. But chief press officer Douzan Matous is optimistic that soon in Most there will be an international standard and W-Lan.
On Saturday Markus Altenstrasser turned 27, and from Austria a big fan club had arrived. But all the best wishes and keeping the fingers crossed was in vain. In regard to scoring points, in Most it was the worst race weekend for the young MAN pilot.
In Most team leader Egon Allgäuer took to the cockpit once more. During the press drivings on Thursday he not only sped over the track in his own two race trucks, but also drove his former truck which now is driven by Adam Lacko at the races. And on Monday morning the Ex-European Champion, together with Markus Bösiger and Jose Rodrigues, chauffeured some of the MAN guests from Latvia and Switzerland over the circuit at racing speed.
We were informed by EUROSPORT that they now will broadcast the Most TV report two days after the race in Zolder, on Tuesday night, September 12, at 23:00 (11 p.m.) hours. For all those who cannot watch at this date – on Wednesday morning, September 13, at 8:30 a.m. there will be a rerun.