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

Albacete – This and That

08. June 2007Because of the of the two Czech pilots, Frankie Vojtisek and Michal Dolak, falling ill, and as Jose Manuel Bailon’s and David Marco’s racing licences had expired, the number of entries for the round in Albacete was reduced to 26 RaceTrucks – which is more than enough in regards to the narrow track. The two spectacular crashes directly after the start, however, could not really be blamed on the circuit, because they could have happened on a broader track, too. On the other hand, the audience – not only in Spain, but especially there – goes to the races hoping for such occurrences to happen. And so Alberto Vila and Orlando Rodrigues, who both were at the back of the field and went over the gravel at almost every bend, raised a lot more cheers than the winners – except for Antonio Albacete, of course.
All the same, the great difference in the performance standards was again alarming. That there are drivers who are 30 percent slower than the top pilots should not be acceptable. When after only three laps the leading pilots begin to lap the trucks at the back of the field, than this is not the standard of an international motor sports series. And in most cases, the slower trucks are the ones that produce the biggest amount of “black smoke”, thus fostering the still wide-spread prejudice that RaceTrucks are nothing but old polluters. It’s true that filter systems are not really cheap, but neither is truck racing nor any other motor sport. And when there are certain standards, then everybody should have to comply with these regulations
But at present even simple things, such as the scoring, are causing problems. Until the end of last season there was an official FIA coordinator, who not only acted as go-between for teams, drivers, sponsors and press people on the one hand, and organizers and the FIA on the other hand, but was also responsible for the official FIA ranking list. Now, for the first time since the start of “truckracing.de / truckrace.info” there are massive discrepancies. But there is nobody who could bring about some clarification.
By being unable to finish the race last Sunday, Markus Oestreich saved the FIA from getting into a big dilemma. On Saturday morning it was said that the German, who, as we know, is officially registered at the FIA as a guest driver on the MAN of Jean-Philippe Belloc, could get points, same as any other race-by-race pilot. If he had finished the last Cup race, then he would have got no less than 34 points. Later it was decided that Oese could not get any points on the grounds that he would not participate in at least 6 races – the minimum amount necessary to be allowed to keep the points. But on the other hand, nobody can know in advance, how many races the race-by-race pilots will participate in. So far, of the race-by-race pilots only father and son Rodrigues got any points.
In Nogaro, presumably Hans-Joachim Stuck will be at the start as a guest driver for the Allgäuer Team in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, the first of the three races he planned to participate in. And he, too, as a race-by-race driver, would be a promising candidate for the points.
Apart from that, a bit disappointing was that the event on Saturday was not so well attended. On Sunday, however, the rather scanty grand strands were fully occupied.
Rather meagre was also the support programme, only some races of the Clio Cup. All in all no real attractions to make more people come to the circuit – there is effectively nothing special going on. It’s not enough to have yet again two jet fighters fly above the crowd with deafening noise. On Friday, there was absolutely off-time, and so there were intense discussion in the paddock whether the Friday shouldn’t be used to have the two free practices there in future, as is already customary in Zolder.