Antonio Albacete and Markus Bösiger to race for Truck Sport Bernau

25. March 2014Last week the rumour surfaced that Swiss veteran Markus Bösiger would pilot the Lutz Bernau team’s second MAN race truck in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship; that liaison is now official. Bösiger was earlier also being discussed as a prospect for another MAN cockpit, in the second truck of Lusatian René Reinert’s team. Better prospects evidently tilted the 2007 champion’s decision in favour of the Bernau team, winner of six driver’s titles and one team championship, and runner-up on numerous occasions.
Bösiger replaces Markus Oestreich in the Meritor DKV truck; the Cepsa truck, meanwhile, will continue to be piloted by Spanish thrice-European champion Antonio Albacete.
Long-time truck racing fans can’t be too comfortable with the news when they remember the 2007 championship, which Bösiger eventually beat Albacete to won by a single point in Jarama. That result was only confirmed after lengthy reviews and numerous protests at the way the Spaniard had been penalised on his home circuit for an attack on Bösiger’s (then) Buggyra teammate David Vršecký. In subsequent years the relationship between the two drivers has been frosty at best, and Bösiger remains a bogeyman for many Spanish fans.
The events set in motion seven years ago come full circle when the two bitter rivals go face to face at the MAN tests in Jarama at the end of March — as teammates. The two have the best prospects of all the drivers in the field of winning the 2014 championship, and are also favourites to defend the team title that Albacete and Oestreich won for Bernau last season.

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