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Sunday in Misano

Sunday in Misano

24. May 2009Misano - In the early morning it was already clearly evident, Sunday was going to be the hottest day of the weekend. When the pilots were ready for the warm-up at 9:30 – watched by a crowd of 27,000 – the thermometer showed already 30 °C (86 °F) in the shade. And it suited the team of Jochen Hahn that the action would start relatively late, because they had been burning the midnight oil in order to replace the engine. And it seemed that their efforts were rewarded. In the timed practice the German MAN pilot secured pole position for the first race, ahead of Markus Bösiger. Behind the Swiss his Czech Buggyra team mate David Vrsecky secured 3rd position ahead of Antonio Albacete. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the temperature on the tarmac was more than 55 °C (131 °F). And there was also a heated discussion after the race.
At the start Hahn and Bösiger approached the light side by side. Hahn as the pole setter set the pace. But already before they entered the first turn, the grey Buggyra passed the black MAN and a bit later he also overtook Albacete and Vrsecky. But now the German kept up with the speed of the leading trio and nothing indicated that there were any serious problems. But already in the second lap Hahn again had to retire with mechanical troubles. Meanwhile Bösiger had gained a comfortable lead, but mid-race the Swiss incurred a pit drive-through penalty which dropped him down the field and he lost about 10 positions. Now Albacete was leading, but was pressurised constantly by Vrsecky. This went on for 3 laps, but eventually the Czech passed the Spanish MAN pilot and held his 1st position all the way to the finish line. Bösiger managed to regain some positions during the last few laps, but had to settle for 4th place behind Renault pilot Markus Altenstrasser. Oliver finished in 5th, followed by Egon Allgäuer, Chris Levett (all of them MAN drivers) and Frankie Vojtisek on 8th, thus securing pole for the second race. In the two remaining points-scoring positions were the two MAN pilots Balazs Szobi and Alexandre Lvov.
Afterwards there was a discussion about Bösiger’s penalty. At first it was said that the Swiss made a jump start, but upon request the race committee announced that the Buggyra pilot had not stayed in his track in the formation lap.
For the last race of the day Jochen Hahn was back again, and he was as determined as the day before, where he also had to start from the back of the grid. But first there was a lot of excitement on the starting grid – the light did not work. Hardly ever had there been such a slow formation lap, however, not slow enough and so they had to do a second formation lap. By then the damage at the light had been fixed. Now there was a clean start. The racing veteran Vojtisek with more than 20 years of truck racing experience defended his pole position, while ex-champion Oliver could not fend off the hard charging Albacete, same as Vrsecky and Bösiger before. The Spaniard literally flashed past his opponents. Finally Albacete overtook also Vojtisek, and soon afterwards Bösiger and Vrsecky closed in on the red Renault. The Swiss had no great difficulty in passing the Czech, but Vrsecky clashed with his fellow countryman. Vojtisek’s truck spun around and he dropped back. Now it was practically clear who the winners were, because Hahn had meanwhile regained 4th. And in this order last year’s protagonists crossed the finish line.
Behind Allgäuer in 5th position, there were Oliver, Altenstrasser and Anthony Janiec (both Renault) ahead of MAN pilot Jean-Pierre Blaise und Pascal Robineau in the places for the points. And again the team ranking for both races was clearly won by Buggyra (Vrsecky/Bösiger). In the first race Team Frankie (Altenstrasser/Vojtisek) was in second place ahead of Team HahnOxxo (Hahn/Szobi). In the second race the two teams switched places.
At about 19:00 hrs (7:00 p.m.) there was an adjustment made to the ranking. Janiec was disqualified belatedly, so that Blaise and Robineau each were promoted up to 8th and 9th place, respectively, and Vojtisek got 1 point despite his spin.
In the overall ranking Albacete could extend his lead and has now 103 points, followed by Bösiger (88), Vrsecky (83), Allgäuer (46), Altenstrasser (43) and Hahn(41). In the team ranking Buggyra is leading with 191 points, ahead of Team Frankie (130) and Team HahnOxxo (101).