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Barcelona – This and That

Barcelona – This and That

06. April 2007The weather was cold, wet and nasty, and everybody who was asked how he was doing, just shrugged and said “look at the weather!” But it could have been even worse. On Monday following the race weekend there was a downpour in Barcelona of 36 litres / square metre, and the water was at times overflowing the streets. On Friday the riverbed of the Tenes, which passes by only a few hundred meters west of the circuit, was totally dried up, and three days later suddenly there was a river. But according to Cepsa team manager, Ivan Cruz, who lives in Barcelona, the people of Barcelona and the surrounding regions are, in fact, glad about the rainfalls, because this means that there will be fewer problems with the drinking water and it will lower forest fire hazards. But there were other topics, too, for instance the amazing domination of the Buggyra Freightliners.
But Mario Kress and his team were not troubled at all by being seen as hottest favourites in the team ranking, because they were sort of prepared for that. With Markus Bösiger they got a pilot who very painstakingly analyses everything, while David Vrsecky, on the other hands, acts mostly by intuition. This is the ideal mix to get right to the top. The other hot favourites for the new team championship are Egon Allgäuer and Gerd Körber. Here two pilots got together who both act rather impulsively, and will tough it out right to the end. This could be seen already in the first races, where both drivers put up some of the most enthralling fights of the weekend.
In regard to this superiority, the other two teams registered, Team Hahn and Frankie Truck Racing Team will probably not stand a real chance. What’s a bit irritating at present, is the ranking list. Everybody thought the regulations stated that the points gained in the races by each driver will be added to the team ranking; so if a pilot wasn’t among the top ten, no points would be given.
Now, in Barcelona, suddenly and without further notice, the almighty FIA committee decided that there will be a separate ranking list for the 8 pilots registered for the team championship. This led to such a confusion that, on Sunday night, only the fourth list which was presented, showed the exact ranking, based upon the new rules. This caused a lot a harsh criticism from the teams, but possibly the last word is not yet spoken in this matter.
At the beginning it wasn’t known which routing the trucks should take, because the track, measuring now 3,049 metres, was 18 metres shorter than in the years before. Which is exactly the distance of the shorter motorbike track; the shorter track for the cars is 2,977 metres. So it was stated that, as before, the trucks had to take the long outer curve, but not the new chicane. Be that as it may, David Vrsecky was and remained the fastest RaceTruck pilot in Barcelona with 1:30.248 minutes (121.6 kph). True, Markus Bösiger was slightly faster at the timed practice, with 1:30.130 minutes (121.8 kph), but only the lap times at the races are counted. Fastest truck racer ever in Barcelona is still Markus Oestreich, who in 2005 marked a time of 1:28,157 minutes (124.5 kph) with his Volkswagen SRT.
The teams have now 7 weeks to prepare for the Zolder races – except for the Team Atkins and Team Oliver who, in two weeks, will be at the start for the first round of the British Championship. MAN will further optimise the electronics, especially in regards to the electronic speed measuring system. The Mercedes crew will thoroughly analyse the most annoying engine failure, because Jochen Hahn would have had the best chances to win the Cup Race last Sunday.