Most – Preliminary Report

25. August 2008Due to the cancellation of the races in Donington the truck racers had to take a compulsory break of 7 weeks. But for several teams and drivers this was an opportunity to get ready unhurriedly for the second half of this season, beginning in Most / Czech Republic, and possibly to unwind a bit. After all, with 5 rounds within 9 weeks – there was quite a bit of travel stress. And now it’s getting even worse. Within a five-week period the teams have to go back and forth all over Europe – from the easternmost to the westernmost circuit and from there to the almost southernmost race track of the truck racing season. But for now everybody is focussing on Most. That’s where last season the sometimes overly violent attacks started, with the result that – due to several protests and objections – after the final in Jarama it took more than two months before the FIA could definitely declare Markus Bösiger the champion of the 2007 season. Back then the Swiss went to the home circuit of his Buggyra team with an advantage of 33 points over his chief rival, Antonio Albacete. On average he gained 50 out of the maximum points of 60 during a race weekend. But now the situation is quite different. Bösiger’s team mate, David Vrsecky, is leading with 16 points ahead of Albacete and 22 points ahead of the title contender. The two failures of his truck in Albacete and Nogaro that forced him to retire – those incidents Bösiger looks upon as his fate. But the debatable drive-through penalty on the Nürburgring still rankles the Swiss and the Buggyra team. Without that penalty he would be only 5 points behind Vrsecky and would even have an 8 point advantage over Albacete.
And, as the Swiss already said on the Nürburgring, his share of bad luck for this season has been used up; now it should be someone else’s turn. But from the German fans’ point of view this other person should not necessarily be Jochen Hahn. After some minor difficulties in the beginning – probably caused by the switch to another marque – the Swabian drove on the same level as the top trio at the TGP. And now he does his utmost to retain the third place he gained last year in the championship. But also Jean-Philippe Belloc who is in the Koller + Schwemmer Team together with Hahn, is going to surge ahead and has definitely good chances for further podium places. And that is the designated target for Frankie Vojtisek, too – especially in front of his home crowd in Most. After his win at the opening race in Barcelona you would have thought that the Czech in his red Renault could be found among the front runners for the rest of the season, but the Buggyras seem to be a class of their own, and there is rarely a chance to pull through the concentrated forces of the MAN phalanx. In spite of that the ex-champion plans on collecting quite a few points for the team championship, too, together with his young partner Markus Altenstrasser. With Jose Bermejo and Steve Horne the fourth team is also completely represented in Most. By the way, the Spaniard and the Brit each drive one of Jochen Hahn’s former Mercedes Benz RaceTrucks.
There are 20 pilots registered altogether. Already on Friday afternoon the two free practices will take place. And every day there will be bright sunshine with temperatures of around 25 °C (77 °F) – at least that’s what the weather people say. The German border is only a few kilometres away, which means that – under these weather conditions – thousands of fans will again hit the road to travel to Most.