TGP on the Ring – This and That

18. July 2008It was the big festival, as expected, for the truck racers, the truckers, for the industry, the fans, for all those associated with truck racing and utility vehicles in one way or another. But yet, something was different and unusual.
When you entered the pit lane and looked across to where the crowds used to cluster on the grandstands – yawning void. The grandstands are gone and the only things you see are cranes, cranes, cranes and a gigantic construction site. You can hardly believe that this time next year everything will be completed. The architectural model of the new complex looks really bombastic, but during this year’s TGP quite a few improvisations were necessary.
The shopping mile with all the fan articles, always conveniently located directly behind the main grandstand, is now situated beyond the federal highway on a green field where you pass when you are heading for the camping sites – not easy to find for the day tripper. The show programmes took place in the Mercedes Arena and the Hatzenbach. There was the Go & Stop contest again proceeding in the tried and tested way – without the additional skill course, this course did not go down well with several of the participants. Watching from above you had a good view, particularly as everything could be seen on a big screen, too. But the fans were too far away from the action, and so it lacked the exuberant spirit. It was nowhere near comparable to the jam-packed pit lane and the crowds doing Mexican waves on the main grandstand during the Go & Stop on the start and finish straight.
A total of 192, 000 spectators flocked to the Eifel this weekend – so we are well on the way to reaching the magical 200,000 mark again. As a result you could sometimes barely get through in the paddock and the industrial park. The industry and the sponsors as well as the teams were downright satisfied with the feedback. Especially in regard to the sponsors, everybody who is anybody was there. And that did, in particular, Jochen Hahn the world of good – in addition, he was also elected most popular truck racer by the fans. After the end of a long-term liaison with Mercedes Benz, the Swabian has now reached midpoint of a tough first season without the three-pointed star. He was not really satisfied with the outcome so far; although he is holding 4th overall in the championship standing he did not delude himself about the true balance of power. The two Buggyras are mostly in a class of their own, if they get away well and unharmed at the start and if they don’t have to cope with technical problems. The distance between Hahn and the top MAN pilot, Antonio Albacete, was greater than expected, and as to Jean-Philippe Belloc, his colleague from the Koller + Schwemmer Team, the Swabian often got the feeling that the Frenchman is a bit faster than he himself. And now there was this enormous improvement in his performance here on the Ring, in sight of all those people who he would like to convince. Hahn was not only far and away the best non-Buggyra pilot, but he was also within touching distance to the Freightliners from Czechia. Especially on the second day, the German crossed the finish line close behind the blue RaceTrucks. Now the Hahn Team hopes for further success, as the weekend on the Ring has shown that they are headed in the right direction, to quote Jochen Hahn.
One of the two Buggyra pilots was well on the way to becoming King of this year’s TGP by winning four races, title holder Markus Bösiger. But his chances were shattered to pieces when he got a drive-through penalty and had to pass through the pit lane, because of overspeeding at the rolling start, as it was stated. The Swiss dropped to 5th which cost him not only 12 points in the championship ranking but also the title ‘International Truck Master Germany’. Bösiger declared that he had strictly observed his instruments. And according to the statement of the Buggyra technicians the evaluation of the telemetry data revealed that, at the moment when the light turned green – and they accelerated fully – both their pilots drove at a speed of exactly 62 km/h. 70 km/h would have been allowed. Such a situation is without precedent so far, and for many observers Bösiger’s penalty was considered to be highly controversial.
Ultimately the GPS system seems to be too inaccurate and, above all, too slow to be able to record exactly the RaceTrucks’ extreme acceleration of speed in the start phase. With only 4 measurements per second the measurement results can simply not match up to the enormous increase in speed during the start phase. Possibly the tolerance limit is too narrow here.
There wasn’t an official statement with exact figures. The Buggyra team said that the number in question was 70.02 km/h – that’s why they were so infuriated. The press office declared they heard about “70.2 km/h”, others spoke about 72 km/h, and those who were noncommittal, just talked about a “significant” exceeding of the speed limit.
As the round in Doningten was cancelled there is now a seven weeks break after the TGP, and perhaps there is the chance to find a modus vivendi that is agreeable to all the parties involved.