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Saturday at the Ring

Saturday at the Ring

24. July 2010Nürburgring - On Saturday morning there was a dense cloud cover and it was rather cold, but at least it stayed dry. Now and then the sun was even peeking through the clouds. After the warm-up in the morning the first championship race began relatively early. On the starting grid a minute’s silence was observed in memory of the Hungarian pilot Balázs Szobi who was killed in a plane crash on July 5th. Then – on the initiative of Jean-Pierre Blaise – all the pilots and mechanics of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship assembled around the black MAN RaceTruck bearing the number 10 to express their sympathy with Szobi’s family and the OXXO Team. Jochen Hahn, his team mate and MAN colleague, delivered a short eulogy.
MAN pilot Chris Levett (GBR) claimed pole position, with Markus Oestreich (GER) in his MKR Renault, the Spaniard Antonio Albacete (MAN) and the second MKR pilot Markus Bösiger (SUI) behind him. And after the start the trucks entered the Mercedes Arena in exactly the same order. Levett clearly pulled away to take a lead he was never to lose until the finishing line. Oestreich was at first unchallenged in 2nd position, when suddenly his truck suffered a loss of power. He was passed by half the field and found himself in 12th position, and in lap 9 the man from Fulda was forced to retire. Now Albacete was behind Levett in 2nd position with Bösiger glued to his rear bumper, but the Swiss never had a real chance to pass the Spaniard. The Czech European Champion David Vrsecky brought his Buggyra Freightliner home in 4th. Hahn, who had to start from 10th position – he was relegated for overspeeding in the SuperPole the day before – managed to work his way up to 5th after only a few laps, but that was the position the MAN pilot had to settle for eventually. Behind the German the two Allgäuer MAN trucks – with Adam Lacko (CZE) and Alex Lvov (RUS) crossed the finishing line. Uwe Nittel (GER), in the second Buggyra, gave again an impressive performance, and with his 8th place secured pole in the second race. The Frenchman Anthony Janiec (Renault) and the Spaniard Javier Mariezcurrena (MAN) finished in 9th and 10th, respectively. For truck racing novice Hendrik Vieth, whose Mercedes RaceTruck has evidently a lower engine power, the 15th position was a decent result.
In the second race of the day the top 8 finishers from race 1 start in reverse order. This meant that Lvov was alongside pole setter Nittel, ahead of Lacko and Hahn. Albace and Levett were in the 4th row on the grid. For the four front runners the start was rather dramatic. The 3 MAN pilot got away a lot better than the pole setter and suddenly Nittel was sandwiched between them. While braking at the entrance to the Mercedes Arena the trucks made contact. The Freightliner of the German was sliding out wide, and Lvov was pushed off the track. Now Vrsecky was suddenly leading, with Albacete and Hahn in tow. Bösiger was glued to Hahn’s MAN, but while everybody was looking forward to watching an exciting fight among the foursome, the German suddenly got a signal that he had incurred a drive-through penalty – apparently because of the first turn skirmish – which dropped him to 12th. Eventually he worked his way up to 10th place, the last position within the points, but in addition collected a rear tyre puncture, so that he was certainly glad that he was able to finish the race. Despite his ‘side trip’ Nittel was still among the front runners and was now in 4th position behind Bösiger. Oestreich, who had to start from the back of the grid because he did no finish the previous race, delivered a great performance. Within 1 lap he had passed 11 opponents and was already in 15th. He went on slicing his way through the pack and eventually finished in 5th position. Chris Levett, the winner of the first race, fared less well this time. Lying in 6th in the fourth lap, the Brit crashed into a tyre barrier and was forced to retire. Meanwhile the top trio had pulled away a bit from their chaser Nittel and was fighting tooth and nail, and they finished the race within a second of each other. But although the Swiss clocked fastest lap time he had to settle for 3rd place. Oestreich, Lvov, Janiec, Lacko, Mariezcurrena and Hahn completed the points-collecting positions. Vieth had dropped to the back of the field at the beginning, but managed to work his way back up to 14th in a field of 26 pilots.
The championship ranking is still led by Albacete who has now collected 156 points, followed by Bösiger (140), Hahn (129), Vrsecky (97), Levett (72), and Oestreich (69).
In the team ranking the first race was won by Truck Sport Bernau (Albacete / Levett) followed by Team Hahn Oxxo Racing (Hahn / Birnbauer) and MKR Technology (Bösiger / Oestreich). The winner of the second race was MKR Technology ahead of Truck Sport Bernau and Team HahnOxxo Racing.
The last race of the day was the first ADAC-Mittelrhein Cup race. As the points scored there count towards the British Championship, Levett and the former European Champion Stuart Oliver (MAN) went into the race flat out. Same as in the FIA races, Levett was again on top form and claimed victory, while Oliver grabbed the runner-up spot. But the German fans were evidently more interest in the fight of the trio Stuck, Lenz and Körber. After all, Hans-Joachim Stuck in his MAN is the title holder. Last year Mercedes-Benz pilot Heinz-Werner Lenz, the ‘King of the Ring’ already launched an attack on Stuck, but now there is yet another challenger, ‘Mr. Truck Racing’ Gerd Körber. And indeed, the three-time European Champion caused quite a furor with his brand-new ‘Schwaben-Truck’, a privately constructed Iveco (for more information, please read our report ‘Gerd Körber in Schwaben-Truck’, dated July 3rd). In the timed practice he was a bit slower than Stuck, but in the race the MAN pilot didn’t have a chance; the man from Rheinau crossed the finishing line about 12 seconds ahead of Stuck and was even 24 seconds faster than Lenz.
But at the TGP there is not only truck racing; the ADAC Mittelrhein comes up with something different every year. When Hans-Joachim Stuck ‘bragged’ about his MAN RaceTruck being so fast that he would be able to outpace almost any other race vehicle, people did not take this ‘provocation’ lying down, and that’s when the bantering started. The first one to pick up the gauntlet was DTM pilot Timo Scheider; Heinz-Werner Lenz and Gerd Körber followed suit. The next one to join the club was truck racer Hendrik Vieth plus some people with exotic vehicles who think they can hold their pace (see also ‘TGP Preliminary Report’, dated July 20th).
But in order to spare his Schwaben-Truck, Körber switched to a VW ‘Bulli’ equipped with an 800 hp Porsche engine. In this fight the KO system was applied, and finally Körber came out the winner. Tomorrow he will have to prove what truck racers are capable of. But actually, there is a minor flaw in the matter: the vehicle Körber fights the duel in is not a truck. Now there is a second duel under debate – featuring a DTM Audi and a RaceTruck. But today everybody enjoyed the unique feeling of the drag races – and the subsequent interview with TV presenter Katharina Kuhlmann.