Sunday in Zolder

14. September 2008Zolder - When the truck racers got up early in the morning, they were greeted by a bright sky, but at the same time it was rather cold with only 7 °C (44 °F). As is well known, on Sundays there is no action whatsoever in Zolder until 10 o’clock, because there is a small chapel in the midst of the circuit where previous to the races a Holy Mass is celebrated. By then it had grown a bit warmer, but after the start of the timed practice the observers and the audience of 17,500 didn’t feel the cold anymore when, after only one lap, the two Buggyra Freightliners with Markus Bösiger and David Vrsecky returned to the pit lane. The competitors did already speculate that there were problems with the brakes – given the more than restraint way of driving the two pilots had shown while steering their trucks over the circuit. But in the pit lane the Buggyra technicians were standing around the two blue trucks almost inactively. And now everybody was figuring out that Buggyra “mastermind” Mario Kress was going to try out some entirely new tactics and went the whole hog. By now the three MAN pilots Antonio Albacete, Jochen Hahn and Chris Levett, who clocked fabulous times, had secured the first three positions. In Formula 1 style the two leading drivers of the championship returned to the track when there were only a few laps to go until the finish. And things looked black for the Czech team. While Vrsecky quickly managed to progress onto 3rd position, title holder Bösiger did not succeed in getting beyond 7th place at first. However, at the very last moment he set a super lap time, and with 1:57.057 min. he actually was about two tenths faster than Albacete. The opponents could hardly believe it – and much less so when, a bit later, Vrsecky secured pole position by clocking an even faster time (by 46 thousandths).
The start of the Qualy race was rather unproblematic. Vrsecky retained his lead ahead of Bösiger, Albacete and Hahn. But soon the Swiss managed to pass his Czech team mate and headed for an unchallenged win; runner-up was Vrsecky on 2nd, followed by Albacete, Hahn and Jean-Philippe Belloc (MAN). Already some hundred meters after the start Levett had an unpleasant encounter with Markus Altenstrasser (Renault), which signified the end of the race for the young Brit – with a dislocated shoulder. The Austrian could drive on and eventually finished in 6th ahead of his team boss Frankie Vojtisek. The top ten was completed by Dominique Lachèze, Stuart Oliver (both MAN) and Anthony Janiec (Renault).
On the starting grid there was suddenly a frenzied bustle around pole setter Bösiger. Something seemed not to go according to plan. Nonetheless, the Swiss continued his leading position at first, but already in the first lap Vrsecky drove past him. From then on everything seemed to work well. The two Buggyras soon pulled clear of the field of chasers which was headed by Albacete. When there were only a few more laps to go, suddenly the gap between the two Freightliners became wider; Bösiger was obviously slowing down. Soon he was overhauled by Albacete and a bit later by Hahn and Belloc, too. And shortly before the finish he had to give in to Lachèze as well. Within a few laps only the Buggyra pilot lost more than 40 seconds and eventually secured 6th place with a mere 1 ½ seconds ahead of Egon Allgäuer (MAN). The Austrian had been fighting against Vojtisek for several laps and the two ‘fighting cocks’ crossed the finish line in a time interval of just a bit more than one tenth. Oliver and local hero Jean-Pierre Blaise (MAN) were on 9th and 10th respectively. After the race Vojtisek was disqualified, as his truck did not comply with the technical regulations at the time of the start, and so Javier Mariezcurrena (MAN) was being promoted to take 10th position, the final place for the points.
After the finish the technical problems at Bösiger’s truck were quickly fixed; but according to Mario Kress they will now start with the cause study immediately.
During the Qualy race Altenstrasser got problems with the axle of his truck which could not be fixed in such a short time. Levett’s truck, however, was ready to start, but alas, this couldn’t be said for the pilot – for understandable reasons.
Once again the team ranking was won by Buggyra (Bösiger/ Vrsecky) ahead of Team Koller + Schwemmer (Hahn/Belloc) and Team Bermejo/Horne.
In the overall ranking Vrsecky extended his lead and has now got 335 points, followed by Bösiger (304), Albacete (299) Hahn (215), Belloc (179) and Altenstrasser (126).