Saturday in Zolder

19. May 2007Zolder - Last night there were heavy rain showers in Zolder, but on Saturday there was rather nice weather; partly cloudy, but a lot of sunshine. However, during the warm-up the track was still damp and so it was a bit difficult to interpret the lap times. The protagonists of the free practice were again dominating. At the timed practice, however, it got quite serious. After only a few laps the red flag was waved – the clutch of Frankie Vojtisek’s Renault had packed up at a rather dangerous spot. After the race was stopped, the pit lane became very cramped. The Hahn team took it philosophically, they just set back and awaited the course of events, after all, Jochen Hahn was on pole, with a comfortable advantage. But only about 5 minutes before the end of the race, suddenly it went helter-skelter. Markus Bösiger was now one tenth of a second faster than Hahn and also David Vrsecky (Buggyra) had caught up. The Mercedes pilot put up a fight, however, he missed the new fastest time of the Swiss (1:58,424) by merely 17 thousandths. This meant that the Swabian and Bösiger would be on the front row for the first Qualification race.
At about 25 °C (77 °F) and an asphalt temperature of slightly more than 40 °C (104 °F), at a not very spectacular race the Buggyra pilot took the lead from the start and could hold this position right to the finish line. Hahn, too, held his second position relatively unchallenged. Although Antonio Albacete on his red MAN followed close behind, he never had a real chance to pass the Axor Mercedes. With a lot of free space in front and behind his truck, David Vrsecky crossed the finish line on fourth, followed by Gerd Körber (MAN), Frankie Vojtisek and Egon Allgäuer (MAN). Shortly after the start, Jean-Philippe Belloc (MAN) clashed with Chris Levett (MAN), and the Englishman lost several positions, but he managed to fight his way up again and finished on ninth behind Belloc. As Stuart Oliver (MAN) got a 10-seconds penalty because of overspeeding, he fell back on 11th position, which meant that Jose Rodrigues (MAN) was promoted and got on the last position in the ranking for the points.
At the Cup race Hahn somehow didn’t get away well from the start. Vrsecky passed him on the right and Albacete on the left. At the entrance of the first bend the Buggyra and the MAN sandwiched the Mercedes, Hahn lost momentum, and now Vojtisek managed to overtake him, too. Directly behind them Belloc dashed across the field, but managed to stop the truck shortly before touching the crash barrier, and consequently had to rejoin the race at the end of the field. Now the Buggyra Freightliner duo was leading, with Albacete in tow. There were several plastic parts flapping at Vojtisek’s Renault, but the Czech could successfully defend his fourth position against Hahn and Körber. Oliver finished on seventh, followed by Levett, Michal Dolak (MAN) and Joseph Adua (MAN). As the Englishman again incurred a time penalty for overspeeding – 20 seconds this time – he fell back on tenth, and all the others moved up one position. After 8 laps Egon Allgäuer, who’s MAN was severely battered, had to give up, and so did not get any points for the team ranking, either. The team ranking was won by the Buggyra Team, followed by (Renault) Frankie Vojtisek Team and the (Mercedes) Team Hahn. At the championship ranking Bösiger could further extend his leading position. He has now got 85 points; followed by Vrsecky (64), Albacete (51), Körber (48), and Hahn (41).