Saturday in Assen

09. May 2009Assen - The same pilots who were leading last season, also set the pace during the warm-up this morning; David Vrsecky ahead of his Buggyra team mate Markus Bösiger and the two MAN pilots Jochen Hahn and Antonio Albacete. Likewise in the timed practice, but this time Albacete was leading – with an advantage of almost half a second. Buggyra chief technician Mario Kress was fairly dismayed. But soon it became obvious that the Spaniard had old Goodyear tyres fitted on the front axle of his truck; admittedly no 2008 tyres – which are not permitted since yesterday evening – but tyres dating back to 2007. Regardless of how the Cepsa Team managed to have those tyres on hand suddenly, in the communiqué of the Truck Racing Commission, issued May 8, 2009, there is only stated that the 2008 tyres are no longer allowed. Vrsecky secured second position on the grid ahead of Bösiger and Hahn.
In the first Championship race there was an incident that set the course for some of the drivers already right from the beginning. Near the starting line Chris Levett (MAN) crashed into Jochen Hahn’s RaceTruck. At first it looked as if this accident had caused no damages. Albacete was still leading, followed by Vrsecky, Bösiger and Hahn. But at the beginning of the second lap the German slowed down considerably. One by one his pursuers overtook him, when, after only several hundred metres, the black MAN was wrapped in white smoke. Quick diagnosis: damage to the turbo-charger after the preceding collision which apparently caused a failure of the cooling-system.
Albacete pulled away gradually and eventually gained an unchallenged start-finish victory. In the same superior style Vrsecky and Bösiger maintained their podium places, followed by the two Renault pilots Markus Altenstrasser and Franki Vojtisek, and the MAN pilots Levett, José Rodrigues, Egon Allgäuer, Balazs Szobi and Stuart Oliver. After the victory ceremony there was a nasty surprise for Bösiger and Levett. The Swiss got a 10 seconds penalty for overspeeding which put him back to 5th. And it was even worse for the Brit. He incurred a 25 seconds penalty for cutting a corner and dropped to 12th place which means he did not get any points.
The first team ranking was won by title contender Buggyra /Vrsecky/Bösiger) ahead of Renault (Altenstrasser/Vojtisek) and the new Team HahnOxxo (Hahn/Szobi).
For the second Championship race the new regulations were applied for the first time. There is still a rolling start, but the first 8 trucks are now placed in reverse order, which means that the winner of the first race is now placed on 8th position on the grid, while the 8th of the first race starts from the pole position. And there was quite some confusion, as actually Szobi should have stood there, because the Hungarian was promoted to 8th when Levett got the time penalty. But now Oliver was on pole, ahead of Allgäuer. Szobi had incurred a 10 seconds overspeeding penalty belatedly. And there were 4 more pilots disqualified for triple-overspeeding, but they were not among the top ten before, anyway.
When all the matters had been clarified, the race could start. Allgäuer made a good getaway ahead of Oliver, but after the first lap Oliver managed to overtake him and reclaim his leading position. Vrsecky, Albacete and Hahn sped ahead. In no time the Czech and the Spaniard had gained 5 places, and Hahn even 12. During all this skirmish Bösiger had dropped back a bit, but managed to move up later on. For some time Oliver could defend his leading position, but after 3 laps Vrsecky and Albacete passed him. After two more laps Bösiger overhauled, too. And on the final lap Hahn also managed to pass the Englishman. Allgäuer finished in 6th, ahead of Vojtisek, Altenstrasser, Levett and Szobi.
The team ranking was again won by Buggyra, ahead of Team HahnOxxo and Renault
The first overall ranking is led by Albacete with 29 points, followed by Vrsecky (25), Bösiger (16), Altenstrasser (15), Vojtisek (14), Oliver (9), Allgäuer (9) and Hahn (7).
First in the team ranking is Buggyra (49), followed by Renault (40) and Team HahnOxxo (21).