Preliminary Report Le Mans

05. September 2007There is a fair chance that it will be warm and dry with up to 24 °C (75 °F), at worst there will be some small clouds – or so the weather forecast says. Besides that, the look-out is not so bright. Part of the truck racing community seems to be even a bit shocked about Mercedes-Benz’ announcement to withdraw from European truck racing for the time being. But in Le Mans Jochen Hahn certainly wants to show what his Mercedes race truck is capable of. At this very circuit the Swabian again and again gave a great performance – this track is just his cup of tea. Less pleasant associations with Le Mans has the current Championship leader, Markus Bösiger. Last year at Saturday’s Cup race he was involved in a serious crash and dropped out shortly after the start. But the last win in Le Mans of his strongest opponent, Antonio Albacete, dates back two years, too. The advantage of the Swiss pilot to the Spaniard is 34 points at present – should the exclusion in Most be affirmed, it would be 32. David Vrsecky is 70 points behind his team mate Bösiger, and his chances of winning the title are only theoretical, however, he still has bright prospects to becoming runner-up. Last year’s vice champion, Gerd Körber, does not only contend for fourth place with Jochen Hahn, but most of all it’s about the glory of becoming the best German pilot; the difference between the man from Baden and the Swabian is not more than 15 points at present, if the current arrangements in regard to the points are maintained and if there won’t be any retroactive alterations. Because, reputedly, at the latest meeting of the committee it was proposed – to avoid the current dilemma with the points – that all of the pilots in the top ten positions shall get points. This would mean that, first of all, the three drivers who stepped in for FIA pilots, Markus Oestreich, Ross Garrett and Markus Altenstrasser, would get points belatedly, whereas the pilots, who were behind the a.m. drivers at the races in question, would lose some points.
And a similar situation would arise for the two race-by-race pilots, Hans Joachim Stuck and Andy Levett, who – same as the father-son team Rodrigues who are already in the points list – were among the top ten, and hence would get points.
With these regulations they could of course avoid the dilemma the current criteria “having to participate in at least seven races” would have presented, i.e. to delete the points of Frankie Vojtisek, Simeon Martin, as well as Eduardo and Jose Rodrigues – who no longer complied with these conditions – plus the consequences this would have for the pilots listed below.
No matter how you look at it, there will always be a queasy feeling about it, which could have been prevented by laying down precise rules and responsibilities right from beginning. Anyway, for the outcome of the championship it will not be significant whether the one or the other rule are applied, as solely at the two Qualy races in Albacete one of the pilots mentioned above, Markus Oestreich, succeeded in crossing the finish line ahead of one of the three title contenders, David Vrsecky. For the rest, the three championship hopefuls were always either further ahead or were so far behind, that even a belated alteration would not have placed them among the top ten, or they were even unable to finish the race.
The FIA still didn’t release a ranking list, but at least now in Le Mans it should be clarified, which criteria will definitely be applied in this regard.