Saturday in Misano

27. May 2006Misano - 17 out of 25 FIA pilots have come to Misano; some of the pilots from Spain, France and Portugal found it too tedious to drive some 1,000 kilometres in such a short time. A bright sun has been shining for days on end, causing not always pure joy as some people suffered a severe sunburn, hence sun lotion was the article that was most in demand. On Saturday, the sun shone less powerful, but nonetheless there was a hot battle. During the free practice session the distance between the first 6 trucks was straight times half second and all of them were on the point of beating last year's lap record. Although the leading trucks were so close together, Antonio Albacete (MAN) was definitely seen as the favourite for pole position. But then the old fox Markus Oestreich (Mercedes-Benz) put the proverbial spoke in the Spaniards wheels. Being last at the timed practice, he started off slowly in the warm-up lap. And as there wasn't anybody behind him; he was in nobody’s way. So the man from Fulda on his Axor<br />
had a free track right from the beginning and used it fully to his advantage. As Oese thought that the Goodyear tyres on the front axle have a lot more grip during the first laps, he staked everything on one card and with 1:39.663 minutes (125.993 km/h) stayed below Albacete's last year's lap record. Same goes for Jochen Hahn (Mercedes-Benz), Albacete and Gerd Körber (Buggyra Freightliner) who all stayed below the magic 1:40 limit. <br />
But during the race everything looked quite different. Oestreich messed up his start, Hahn and Albacete, however, had brilliant starts with Körber in tow. And all of a sudden, Oese was on 4th position. Then Albacete and Körber attacked Hahn and soon the Swabian lost his leading position. And after only a few laps the leading positions were clearly established. But for the following positions there was a war to the knife. Quite an impressive start had Ross Garrett (Foden) and could gain 4 positions. But you could not count of his keeping 5th for a long time, and indeed, soon David Vrsecky passed by on his Buggyra Freightliner which was definitely faster. Markus Bösiger (MAN), however, met his match when he tried to pass the Englishman. The Swiss had a rather bad start, lost 4 positions right from the beginning and had to struggle hard to regain some positions. At first Adam Lacko (MAN) put up a strong resistance when attacked by Bösiger. Another Czech pilot, Frankie Vojtisek (Renault), could only hold him off for one lap, then the silver-coloured MAN passed him and was now behind Garrett's Foden. And there, an old Truck Racing wisdom proved to be true: to catch up with Garrett is one thing, but to pass him is a different story. <br />
During five laps he tried everything, but only when coming to the home stretch, only a few metres before passing the 'checkered flag', he succeeded in snatching 5th position from Garrett. <br />
At the following Cup Race Albacete and Hahn again had an excellent start and Körber had to contend with 3rd. Soon the top three left the rest of the field behind, and a short time later the Buggyra pilot dropped back as well. There seemed to be no doubt about the podium places until Körber apparently lost some strength. Lap after lap Oestreich gained some tenth, until he was glued to the rear of the Buggyra. This situation reminded us vividly of the old SuperRaceTruck times when the two longest serving truck-racers always put up fights of the highest standard. But this time Oese's struggle was in vain; by a margin of only two tenth Körber could defend his 3rd position. <br />
A lot tougher was the fight between Lacko and Bösiger. In the first left turn they collided with each other. Bösiger's truck looked a wreck, but obviously he had no problem to continue the race. Lacko's MAN, however, after the unpleasant incident, kept on for 2 laps, but a spectacular burst of a tyre meant the end of the race for the young Czech. In consequence, Vojtisek gained one position without really having to fight for it. And Vincent Crozier (Renault), Markus Altenstrasser (MAN), Niko Pulic (Mercedes Benz) and Garrett had a tough battle for the remaining points up to the finish. The unlucky fellow of the day certainly was David Vrsecky. Being the leader of the overall standing - together with Albacete - the Czech came to the Italian Adria full of confidence; but 5th position in the qualifying race and the complete failure of his truck due to a damaged brake resulted in his falling back to 4th position, behind Albacete, Körber and Hahn.