Nogaro – This and That

23. June 2006This year the Gascogne was not as hot as all the years before, but it was very humid. The weather situation was rather unpredictable, but fortunately the heavy rain showers never fell at the times when there were races. The paddock was overcrowded as always in Nogaro, although in the surrounding area there was enough free space. But next year there will be an improvement. There is going to be a new pit lane running parallel to the short straight, and connected to it will be a paddock. That will put an end to the inconvenient tunnel passage to get to the grid.
And there will be a new press centre with all the technical facilities. We have several times told about the rather modest equipment on the top floor of the prominent tower of Nogaro. This time the sun did not heat up the rooms with the huge glass windows so extremely, nevertheless, the air conditioning soon failed, and again they had to get buckets to collect the dripping water.
On Friday evening it looked as if there wouldn’t be an internet access at the press centre. But overnight they laid a cable of about 50 m from the office of the stewards across some roofs to the press tower, and so the press people were able to communicate via WorldWideWeb.
They are going to spend more than 3 million euros on the new facilities, and certainly there will be something left for the technical equipment.
On Saturday there was a disqualification that was rather unexpected. After the Qualifying Race when the pilots went to the Parc Fermé, FIA Technical Delegate, Fabien Calvet, had interrupted the air supply for the engines of some of the trucks which should cause the engine to stop immediately. The engine of Albacete’s truck, however, kept on chugging slowly. Due to the various maintenance works the air-restrictor failed to close tight enough. In the opinion of the experts this does not necessarily mean that the Spaniard had an advantage in the race, but it’s absolutely contrary to the regulations. Rumour has it that Calvet met with fierce resistance within the FIA committee before the disqualification was pronounced.
Apart from that the problem with the rolling starts was again a topics. Contrary to the race in Albacete, here in Nogaro the starting light worked properly, but the different attitudes of the pilots towards the regulations caused some annoyance and even led to an official protest in one case.
The stewards watched the video recording of the inboard camera several times as well as the tape from the Eurosport crew, and after a lengthy discussion the complainant withdrew his protest seeing no chance to succeed considering the opinions of the stewards. At the Mercedes team the opinions about the matter differed, too. But in spite of all the controversies, Jochen Hahn und Markus Oestreich were happily tucking into the delicious regional and national food the Mercedes Benz Getriebeservicecenter Gaggenau offered to their French guests in a catering marquee. And both pilots had every reason to enjoy it, because it was their best racing weekend of the season.
And someone else was rather content, too. Markus Altenstrasser got a podium for the first time. But the pilot from the Egon Allgäuer team was realistic about his success, because Nogaro was the first circuit of the series he already knew from the testing in March.
Markus Bösiger, however, was a bit grumpy, although he, too, achieved his best results of the season. First of all, he felt he had been at a disadvantage during the rolling start, and second, he was not yet fully satisfied with his truck’s performance in spite of all the improvements.
On Friday when every one had recovered from the early morning whirlwinds, some people made the 150 km (94 miles) trip to the Atlantic coast, while others took advantage of the fact that there was not much to do on Friday evening and went to the small wineries around Nogaro to buy the renowned Floc de Gascogne.