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Jarama – This and That

Jarama – This and That

12. October 2009When the first teams arrived at the Circuito del Jarama early in the morning on Wednesday, the paddock was rather wet, because it had been drizzling all night. But later on the weather changed for the better, true to the forecast. There were bright sunshine and temperatures of 25 °C (77 °F) and above, although the nights were fairly cold – the best conditions for a perfect truck racing weekend. But soon there were some clouds looming up on the horizon; beginning with the announcement of the officials in Jarama that the Rigdon tyres were banned completely. These tyres had been under observation for some time after some incidents in Zolder where they showed signs of disintegration, but during the races in Le Mans there weren’t any occurrences in regard to the tyres, so that this decision came out of the blue for the teams. In the paddock there stood a trailer loaded with new Rigdon tyres, while there were not enough Goodyear tyres – the only real alternative to the Rigdon tyres – available.
On Saturday night a replenishment delivery arrived, so that for the second racing day an adequate supply was guaranteed, too. But actually by this time several things had gone flat already, and the matter of the tyres had become an irrelevant fact.
In order to win the championship, Antonio Albacete needed to collect at least 11 points more than the leading Buggyra pilot David Vrsecky. This meant that in case of a ‘normal’ course – i.e. the Czech pilot would not drop out – the Spaniard would have to win both first races, where the winner gains 20 points. Here the Madrilenian was the odds-on favourite. He knows every stone and every inch of his ‘home track’, and has already celebrated innumerable victories there, whereas Vrsecky had never before won a race in Jarama. But surprisingly the second Buggyra pilot Markus Bösiger clocked fastest times in the first timed practice; and it was a surprise because the performance of the Swiss driver had been a bit below his usual standard at the previous race weekends, and he had some problems with the handling of his truck. But meanwhile Buggyra’s technician crew had detected the reason why – the front shock absorbers did not always work accurately under certain circumstances. This problem was not recognizable during standard shock absorber tests.
Now the Swiss was glad to be able to demonstrate that he is by no means ‘ready for the scrap heap’. However, the Cepsa Team was far from pleased, because Albacete not only had to be content with third spot on the starting grid, but had to line up behind his actual opponent in the fight for the title, Bösiger’s team mate Vrsecky – a downright unfavourable starting situation. However, certainly nobody would have expected to watch such a dramatic outcome.
When pole setter Bösiger braked relatively early at the end of the long start straight, before entering the almost 180 degree right hand turn, local hero Albacete crashed heavily into the rear end of the Freightliner. Only a few hundred meters further on, at the entrance of the Le Mans bend, the red Cepsa MAN again hit the grey Buggyra Freightliner, this time with even greater force and with far-reaching consequences: both trucks went off the track.
Albacete, who knew at this moment that his hopes of winning the championship were buried in the gravel, jumped out of his vehicle and – while the race proceeded – ran thirty or forty meters through the deep gravel bed, until one of the marshals stopped him at the open door of Bösiger’s driver’s cabin. About the procedures that followed this incident, the opinions were quite different, depending on the point of view. Albacete’s behaviour, although understandable but nonetheless violating the regulations, went obviously unpunished – at least nobody heard anything to the contrary – while Bösiger, or so it was said at first, would be disqualified from the next race because of his braking.
Meanwhile the Buggyra Team had lodged an appeal, and after a last-minute decision the Swiss was allowed to start – from the pit lane, as he arrived too late for the line-up on the grid. But according to Buggyra, the organizers later wanted to charge a fee of 20,000 Euros for the appeal. Buggyra refused to pay this sum, and then Bösiger was disqualified from taking part for the whole weekend because of “dangerous and anti-sportive behaviour”.
On Sunday there was finally the truck racing festival the Spanish fans in Jarama had been looking forward to. Cheered by 41,000 enthusiastic fans Albacete came off as the winner in both races. None of his opponents had offered a lot a resistance; after all, most of the results were already determined.
At the start of the first race the Spaniard was faced with almost the same situation as his opponent Bösiger the day before. At the end of the start straight at the entrance to the long-stretched right hand bend pole setter Albacete was so slow that Vrsecky and the Englishman Chris Levett passed him on the outer track. But Jochen Hahn braked abruptly, too, and did not crash into his MAN colleague driving ahead of him, so that Albacate was able to pull away on the more favourable inner track and managed to pass Vrsecky who gave way to the Spaniard.
But the exuberant spirits on the grand stand, attributable also to the local hero’s superior performance, did not necessarily spread to the paddock, where still the incidents that happened the day before were discussed, and people were much more interested in the question of what will become of Egon Allgäuer’s racing team, because the Austrian had told time and again that he was going to sell everything and wants to retire from truck racing.
If the weekend had turned out differently, Bösiger and Allgäuer would perhaps have announced that the Swiss will take over the entire team, lock, stock and barrel, because prior to the event in Jarama the deal was as good as wrapped up.
But a few days ago Bösiger announced that he is not going to buy the team, and gave the disagreements he is having with the Truck Racing Commission as a reason for his change of mind. Yet it is doubtful whether Allgäuer will take part in the championship next year, because he, too, never hid the fact that he is having problems with several members of the Commission. And on Sunday the entire team hit the road early in the evening – and stayed away from the FIA celebration.