Saturday in Nogaro

20. June 2009Nogaro - In the night a short rainstorm lashed down over Nogaro, but when the truck racers woke up early in the morning they were greeted by bright sunshine.
Although it was mostly overcast, the temperatures rose to almost 30 °C (86 °F) as the day progressed. Already in the warm-up the pilots clocked times that made people sit up and take notice; Antonio Albacete and David Vrsecky were even faster than 1:53.000 – posting 1:52,908 and 1:52,990, respectively. But in the timed practice the pilots could not improve their lap times. With 1:52,999 Vrsecky secured pole position ahead of his Buggyra team mate Markus Bösiger and the MAN pilots Albacete, Jochen Hahn, Christopher Levett and Egon Allgäuer. Dominique Lachèze, who participates as guest driver, was disappointed. His team spent half the night adjusting and changing the set-up, but the MAN RaceTruck was actually about 7 seconds slower in the warm-up and still 4 seconds slower in the timed practice than in yesterday’s free practice.
However, the team had to acknowledge to themselves that on the first day the speed monitoring did not really function that correct and hence the times were rather unconvincing.
Just in time for the first Championship race the sun began to shine and the temperature on the tarmac was over 47 °C (117 °F). But the truck racers kept a cool head. There was a clean start. Vrsecky took an early lead, followed by Bösiger, Albacete and Hahn. Allgäuer was lying in 5th after he passed Levett and also Markus Altenstrasser with his red Renault managed to get ahead of the blue MAN of the Englishman. It was certainly a bit of a surprise to watch how fast the two Buggyras pulled away from their chasers Albacete and Hahn and eventually crossed the finishing line 6 and 7 seconds, resp., ahead of the two MAN pilots. Allgäuer, who had moved into 5th at the start of the race, held this position until the chequered flag. And also behind the Austrian the race was quite uneventful. Altenstrasser was all the time attached to the rear end of his fellow Austrian’s truck, but never had a real chance to pass the yellow MAN. Behind Levett, Stuart Oliver finished in 8th and secured pole position for the second race. Balazs Szobi (MAN) and Frankie Vojtisek (Renault) gained the last two places for the points.
In the second race there was an all-English first row on the starting grid – Oliver and Levett. While Oliver used his pole position to good effect, behind him – already in the first bend – there was a frantic scrabble with Albacete and Allgäuer benefitting the most of the incident. Levett, Hahn and Vrsecky all lost several positions, and Szobi even ended up on the grass after only a few hundred metres because of a damaged wheel rim. After the second lap Albacete had worked his way up and was now leading, followed by Allgäuer, Oliver, Levett and Altenstrasser. While the Spaniard very quickly pulled out an almost unbelievable lead, Allgäuer was relatively unchallenged in second position. Oliver, however, had to fend off some rather fierce attacks. At first the Englishman had to let fellow Brit Levett by, and then he was involved in a collision which dropped him back to 9th. Now Altenstrasser was on 4st, closely followed by Bösiger, Hahn and Vrsecky who were all definitely faster. In mid-race the trio overtook the Renault of the Austrian almost as one man, and after one more lap they also passed Levett. Now they started to catch up with Allgäuer who had progressed up the field, while Albacete steered his truck to an unchallenged victory. Lap after lap the three chasers came closer to the Austrian’s MAN. Again and again Bösiger made a move to pass, while Hahn and Vrsecky kept some distance. In the fourth bend before the finish line there was a vigorous attack. Bösiger, Allgäuer and Hahn drove almost side by side, when their trucks made contact. The Swiss and the Austrian became entangled and both spun off. Hahn emerged relatively unscathed and finished in 2nd, Vrsecky managed to stay out of the mayhem and crossed the finishing line in 3rd. Levett, too, managed to overtake the two battered trucks. Almost side by side Allgäuer and Bösiger brought their damaged vehicles home, with Bösiger a fraction ahead of the Austrian. Later the Swiss incurred a 1 second penalty, handing the 5th position to Allgäuer with an advantage of 2 tenths. Behind Alexander Lvov in 7th, the remaining places for the points were taken by Altenstrasser, Oliver and Anthony Janiec (Renault).
For both races the team ranking was again won by Buggyra. In the first race the HahnOxxo-Team was lying in 2nd position ahead of Team Frankie; in the second race the two teams switched places.
After the races there was a lengthy discussion about the two accidents in the first and the final lap; and allegedly protests were lodged against the officials’ decision, which means that it is quite possible that the results will be adjusted. Therefore no preliminary results will be published on this site; and so far there aren’t any official ranking lists available yet.