Truck Racer Weekend in Langenthal

24. January 2011Markus Bösiger extended an invitation and many people came – there must have been more than 60 guests altogether. The largest group – the MKR Technology Team led by Mario Kress – arrived from the Czech Republic in a small bus. In addition, there were representatives of several other teams and of companies involved in truck racing as well as Bösiger’s friends and sponsors, and, of course, the media.
While the bigger part of the guests from far away places stayed in hotels in Langenthal and the surrounding area, several others arrived in their mobile homes – just like at the circuit. But this time truck racing was not the main issue, but rather the social gathering, the conversation and the exchange of experiences. The most spectacular event was certainly an ice hockey match in the evening, but prior to that there were a lot of other interesting things to see in a tight schedule – and sustenance was provided, too. Some of the guests went to a wellness centre and a porcelain factory, respectively, while others went on a tour guided by Marcel-Sello Hermann, Bösiger’s constant “attendant” at the circuits ever since the time when the Swiss joined the Sidecar World Championship. Hermann showed them round his “empire”, Wasser-Kraftwerk (hydropower station) Wynau on the Aar River, operated by onyx Energie Mittelland AG. Brimming with enthusiasm Sello told his audience about the history of the power station which is going back to over hundred years and impressed them with amazing data. And he also showed them the “heart” of the power station, the turbine. In order to get there you had to master a lot of staircases – which was a bit awe-inspiring because of the height – and narrow tubes with ladder spokes in it. And finally you were 25 metres below the water surface. Without ear protection the sound volume would have been unbearable.
Late in the evening the sound level wasn’t really much lower when Sello presented an engine he plans to install in a lawn mower. The general opinion was “where this device is employed the grass won’t grow anymore”, because this “monster” originates from an old Rolls-Royce aircraft engine which has the same or even higher horsepower output than the strongest SuperRaceTrucks had in their very best days. However, the lawn mower engine exceeds the noise of the truck engine many times over.
By contrast, while we visited the small “Bösiger privat zoo” situated opposite the office of the Langenthal entrepreneur there was almost peaceful quietness – only the geese gabbled, the goats bleated and the pot-bellied pigs oinked.
And it was absolutely quiet when Bösiger presented his exhibition of racing vehicles to his guests – ranging from a Formula One racer to motorcycle sidecars. And of course people started at once talking shop.
Then it became noisy again when in the evening the guests met for the ice hockey match in the indoor ice rink of the National Sport Centre in Huttwil which belongs to the Bösiger Group. The multi-national amateurs from Germany, France, Great Britain and Switzerland – many of them had never before so much as worn ice skates – were no match for the “pros” from the Czech MKR team. Only when the blue MKR players dialled it down a notch, the green amateurs managed to send the puck into the net, too. Finally the “blues” won the game 7:4.
Back in Langenthal, by late evening it got once more quite exciting – at the Bösiger Bowling Centre. Until 4 o’clock in the morning the most eager players tried to hit as many pins as possible.