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Preliminary Report Barcelona 2007

Preliminary Report Barcelona 2007

28. March 2007The opening race of the European truck racing season in Barcelona is by now a tradition. And a tradition, too, is the edginess and tension among the truck racers on the days before the race. No driver knows how he himself will fare, let alone his opponents. However, there are bright prospects for the Buggyra Freightliners with Markus Bösiger and David Vrsecky. Their trucks seem to be the most sophisticated. During the winter break, Mario Kress and his team have – with great expenditure – further developed the Freightliners in the RaceTruck workshop in Roudnice, and the test results achieved in Most were rather promising. The other top teams met at almost the same time in Nogaro.
And there it became apparent that there is still a lot of work to do for the MAN service team and the Bosch electronic technicians to bring the new Common Rail race engine up to the standards of last year’s championship race engine in every respect. Jean-Philippe Belloc and Egon Allgäuer, who drove a “previous year version” came off better – at least during the tests – than Antonio Albacete, Gerd Körber and Chris Levett with their new “D 26”.
In addition, Körber had to cope with his switch to another team. Although in truck racing they all know each other and it’s a big family, Gerd Körber and Mario Kress were together since childhood – and suddenly they are opponents.
For Jochen Hahn everything is as before, Naturally, the Swabian stays with Mercedes, although in midyear of 2006 it looked as if Hahn would chuck truck racing for good. And despite being a lone fighter against an apparently overpowering MAN Armada and a Buggyra team that seems to be more powerful than ever before, Hahn and the Mercedes service team, too, look far from feeling gloomy about the future. In Le Mans the Axor was definitely the fastest truck, and also the tests in Nogaro showed that Hahn and his Mercedes are far from losing their power – but rather the opposite.
Certainly it would have been appreciated in Stuttgart, if Braco Radovanovic would have registered his Euroline Team and Markus Oestreich as a pilot. On the other hand, there are still 3 positions open in the FIA entry list.
The fourth party in the fight for the podium is now Renault. The company will no longer sponsor in a non-selective way, but will concentrate mainly on Frankie Vojtisek. After all, it’s their goal to secure a top podium position within 3 years. Vojtisek is one of the longest serving and most experienced pilots of truck racing, and for the team championship – which will be held for the first time – he teamed up with the Spaniard Simeon Martin, who is not much less experienced than the Czech.
Hahn, too, teams up with a Spanish truck racer. Enrique San Juan participated already in the European Championship for several years, on one of the older Hahn trucks, but never secured a podium – as he did at the Spanish Championship. But this could change now in regard to the Team Championship. And Jochen Hahn, too, will enter new territory, because in return the Swabian will also register for the Spanish Championship, where his toughest opponent will certainly be Antonio Albacete.
Albacete, on the other hand, surprisingly is not registered for the Team Championship, although – together with the other pilot of the Bernau team, Jean-Philippe Belloc – he would certainly be a powerful opponent. So it’s incumbent now for Egon Allgäuer and Gerd Körber to defend the MAN colours against the apparently overpowering Buggyra team.
Up till now there are no more than four teams that intend to join the Team Championship.
According to the weather forecast the temperatures will be 15 to 16 °C (59 to 61 °F) with mostly dry surface. One of the weather services said, however, that there could be rain showers on Sunday around midday.