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FIA Ceremony 2010

FIA Ceremony 2010

09. October 2010The peaceful and markedly cheerful sentiment that had been prevailing all weekend at the Circuito del Jarama continued to exist during the FIA ceremony at the Penarrubia Country Estate on Sunday evening. There weren’t any critical remarks, let alone a single angry word. However, admittedly, the only people who had occasion to speak into a micro were the new President of the FIA Truck Racing commission, Manuel Vidal, who delivered the welcome speech, the two announcers Roger Llopart and Jonathan Reeves as well as the two FIA representatives Frédérique Trouvé and Tony Iddon. But, wait a minute – there was yet another person who got a chance to speak, Markus Reiter, friend and advisor of Uwe Nittel. When he was asked a question, he answered: “Nobody”.
There was no comparison to the heated atmosphere back in 2007, when a whole team ostentatiously stayed away from the event. But certainly there wasn’t anybody wishing back such a precarious situation. Now everybody indulged in reminiscence of the past season, and the main topic in all the speeches was the round at the Smolenskring. A Russian delegation had already spent the whole weekend at the circuit, and among other things they presented a book published to mark the first ever FIA circuit race in the Russian Federation which can already be considered as a kind of historic event. Now Mike Konovalov and the other participants of the delegation were invited guests at the FIA ceremony and accepted with pleasure the sustained applause from the entire truck racing community.
It wasn’t before midnight that the actual prize-giving ceremony started and finally there was not a single pilot who went away empty-handed. Again Antonio Conejero was given standing ovation. As already reported in “Jarama – This and That”, dated October 6, the Spaniard suffered a stroke during the round in Albacete, and it was the first time since falling ill that the popular driver attended a truck racing event, accompanied by his wife and daughter. Visibly moved Conejero accepted the trophy and the applause. No less moved was the audience assembled in the hall when Oxxo Racing team manager Ákos Jobbágy received the trophy for Balazs Szobi who died in a plane accident in July.
After many awards and a lot of applause it was the turn of the top ten. In his fourth year in truck racing Anthony Janiec could finally claim a place in the top group. The French Renault pilot was 1 point behind the German “high-flier” Uwe Nittel. Last year the rally pilot participated in Truck Grand Prix at the Ring and was a guest driver in the Mittelrhein Cup race, sitting behind the steering wheel of a RaceTruck for the first time – and apparently was fascinated. In Albacete the Swabian stepped in as race-by-race pilot for Buggyra, and he had not planned to take part in any other races – but in the end he contested in seven rounds. He not only received another trophy “Rookie of the Year”, but – by collecting 82 points – also got down in truck racing history as the most successful race-by-race pilot ever. But the Freightliner pilot received yet another award he could certainly have done without: for hooking up on the back of Alex Lvov’s MAN he was awarded the “Crash of the Year” trophy. And in this connection his adviser Markus Reiter was asked who had been in radio contact with the pilot in Most – “Nobody”.
To enable him to stay in permanent contact with his “protégé” in future, the perplexed Reiter was presented with an ancient push-button phone with an extra-long cord.
The a.m. Alex Lvov was in 8th position. Lvov’s trophy was given to Mike Konovalov, as his fellow-countryman had already left Jarama – and the Allgäuer Team had departed, too, safe for one person, seventh-place finisher Adam Lacko, so that the Czech could collect his award in person, whereas the trophy for 6th-place finisher Chris Levett was received by his brother Richard.
Last year’s Champion David Vrsecky could have easily qualified for 2 trophies: besides his award for 5th position an additional trophy “Unlucky Fellow of the Year” – had such an award been available. Rarely, if ever, a defender of the title has been dogged by bad luck as often as the Czech pilot in his Buggyra Freightliner – especially towards the end of the season. Markus Oestreich in his MKR Renault, however, was extremely unlucky at the start of the season, when his nearest rivals collected up to 20 points more than the German in each round. But after hitting rock bottom in Albacete where he got only 12 points, the man from Fulda started to catch up and finally he even came within reach of the vice title.
Before the trophies for the 3 top finishers were presented, the prize-giving ceremony for the European Team Championship took place.
The winner of third place was Hahn-Oxxo-Racing (Jochen Hahn / Balazs Szobi and Zoltan Birnbauer resp.), and the trophy was taken by the team’s two leading people, Konrad Hahn and Ákos Jobbágy. In 2nd place was Truck Sport Bernau (Antonio Albacete / Chris Levett), and team boss Lutz Bernau, who presented the awards to the winners of the Sponsors’ Challenge the day before, was now the honoree. And then the winner of the year in every respect came forward – Mario Kress. There have been three team championships so far, and every time Kress won the trophy – albeit as team boss of Buggyra. Less than a year ago the man from Baden who meanwhile is married and lives in Roudnice / Czech Republic founded his own motorsports enterprise, Mario Kress Racing – MKR Technology.
He entered into a longer-term contract with Renault Trucks with the intention to win the European Team Championship some day. But that – together with the two pilots Markus Bösiger and Markus Oestreich – he would accomplish that goal already in the first season, even the most optimistic member of the team would never have expected.
At first the FIA representatives were quite surprised when a young man with a mop of frizzy hair approached them, because – let’s put it this way – usually Kress’ hair is rather close-cropped. But they already recognized Mario by his prominent nose, before his wife Klara pulled off his wig.
And as nobody asked any of the three team winners to say some words or even to deliver a speech, the ceremony went on in rapid succession.
As in the previous year, Jochen Hahn again got the trophy for 3rd overall in the drivers’ championship. The German obtained the same number of first places in the championship races as the second-place finisher – 8 wins altogether, but only one in the first race of the day where more points can be gained and seven in the second races. For the vice champion, the Swiss pilot Markus Bösiger, it was the other way round, and that tipped the scales although Bösiger had been forced to retire more often. With his win in the first race of the season with a brand new truck – the MKR Renault – and aggravated by the fact that he had to drive with a fractured bone in his hand, Bösiger paved the way for his ultimately unexpected success.
And finale, the new champion, Antonio Albacete was celebrated almost enthusiastically. Never before the Spanish MAN pilot, whose temper formerly got the better of him now and then, acted as disciplined as this season. Although the two MKR Renault pilots were probably often a bit faster, 5 wins each in the first and the second races bear witness of Albacete’s poise. And what’s more, his truck almost never suffered a failure. And in Misano, where he had been forced to retire after a crash, the race was stopped and couldn’t be re-started because it took too long to remove the oil from the track. Fortune favours the brave – that’s an old saying.
The evening, or rather the early morning, was rounded off with a film by Kamiono TV, showing highlights of the season and the most exciting action scenes.