Saturday on the Ring

12. July 2008Nürburgring - In the early morning there was still hope that the wind would soon blow away some scattered clouds. Instead the cloud cover became denser by the minute. But during the warm-up it was still dry, and polesetter Markus Bösiger (Buggyra Freightliner) was no less than 6 seconds quicker than yesterday at the timed practice. But already during the line-up on the grid it began to drizzle. This season the pilots had ample opportunity to gain experience in regard to slippery tracks and so they went about it rather carefully. Bösiger took the lead right from the start and held this position until the chequered flag. At first Antonio Albacete (MAN) and David Vrsecky (Buggyra Freightliner) were quite close to the rear of Bösiger’s truck, but gradually the Swiss pulled away and soon had a comfortable advantage. And also the Spaniard managed to leave Vrsecky behind who seemed to have some problems, because Jean-Philippe Belloc and Jochen Hahn (both MAN) passed the Czech almost effortlessly. But when Chris Levett, another MAN driver, tried to overtake the Freightliner, too, Vrsecky stepped on the gas again and moved on as if nothing had happened before. So he could keep the young Brit at a distance, however, did not succeed in closing up to the front runners. On 7th Stuart Oliver (MAN) crossed the finishing line, followed by the three Renault pilots Frankie Vojtisek, Markus Altenstrasser and Anthony Janiec in the remaining positions for the points.
Before the start of the final Championship Race everybody looked up at the sky time and again. At that time it was dry, but the cloud cover was rather dense. Some pilots even took a look at the weather radar of the Bonn Uni. In the end everybody concluded that, likely as not, it would stay dry for another half hour, and by then the race would be over. And indeed, it was not until the cool-down lap that it started raining.
The start went off rather smoothly. But at the entrance to the Mercedes Arena the truck racers have to brake hard, and one of the trucks seemed to have touched the rear of Belloc’s MAN – not without consequences. The Frenchman crashed into Albacete’s MAN; this sent the truck spinning and then it came to a stop pointing in the wrong direction. The Spaniard was forced to let all his opponents go past on the left and right. Bösiger, who was not in the least involved in the incident, pulled again away from his chasers, only Vrsecky managed to stay close behind the Swiss. In the field behind them everything was mixed up. Albacete was on the back of the field, Belloc was forced to retire, and Vojtisek suddenly found himself on third place. But, much to the delight of his numerous fans, Jochen Hahn now started to attack the Czech incessantly, and eventually overhauled the red Renault. Vojtisek’s truck did not only look rather wrecked, but it seemed to decelerate gradually; the Renault pilot dropped behind his team mate Markus Altenstrasser and finished in 8th – ahead of Anthony Janiec (Renault) and Egon Allgäuer (MAN) who secured 9th and 10th ,resp. Hahn had no problems holding off Chris Levett and crossed the line ahead of the Englishman in 3rd place. Behind Levett was already the fiercely charging Albacet who had progressed up the field, leaving 16 opponents behind. In doing so the spunky Spaniard played a bit rough sometimes, at least he incurred a fine because of his attack on Oliver during their fight for 5th place. In the evening a further protest was at issue, which was not yet decided about definitely.
But this was partly to blame on the fact that the race for the Mittelrhein Cup dragged on for ages. Twice the race was stopped and had to be re-started. Cheered by his fans, Heinz-Werner Lenz in his Iveco seemed to head for the podium, but after missing the braking point twice on the sopping wet and slippery surface he dropped behind considerably. Instead another German racing idol, Hans-Joachim Stuck (MAN) sent the crowds to their feet. After starting from the back of the grid – the times he clocked in the practice had been cancelled due to underweight of the truck – he progressed up the field and managed to finish in 3rd. And then we had to wait a long time. Oliver and Levett, who were both registered for the races of the British Championship, too, achieved 1st and 2nd place, resp. Now the three podium candidates were standing around waiting, but nothing happened. Eventually, after some protracted data evaluation, it was decided that Stuck had several times exceeded the speed limit, and hence had to be disqualified. While Oliver was waiting for the victory ceremony to take place, he should have appeared before the race committee at the same time. That’s why there wasn’t any definite decision yet regarding the dispute Albacete vs. Oliver.
In the championship standing Vrsecky is still leading with 203 points, ahead of Albacete (197), Bösiger (192), Hahn (144) and Belloc (124). The team ranking was again won by Buggyra (Bösiger/Vrsecky), followed by Team Frankie (Vojtisek/Altenstrasser) andTeam Koller + Schwemmer (Hahn/Belloc).