Barcelona – Preliminary Report

30. June 2009Looking back on the racing weekend in Barcelona last season still makes the truck racers shudder. For three days it was constantly raining and many pilots would certainly have preferred to be at the wheel of an Amphicar instead of a RaceTruck. For the first time the truck racing community is going to meet at the Circuit de Catalunya at the height of summer. Until now the round in Barcelona always took place at the beginning of the season. But now the weather outlook is a lot more positive. Every day there will be temperatures of 30 °C (86 °F) or even more. Perhaps the predicted light cloud cover will prevent even higher temperatures. However, the weather forecast is one thing, but the actual weather situation can be a different kettle of fish. Last year they even predicted a water shortage, and the Barcelona City Council had already hired some automotive water tankers to secure water supply for the people.
But be that as it may, there will be an impressive turnout of 30 trucks. Apart from the 21 FIA pilots there are another 8 Spanish drivers – the points achieved in this round count towards the Spanish Championship – and Dominique Lachèze who will perhaps again snatch some points away from the one or other ‘established’ drivers.
As is customary in Spain, the focus will again be on Antonio Albacete. And it is a tradition that at the three rounds on the Iberian Peninsula Albacete’s sponsor “Cepsa” is very active. But the Spaniard is such an old hand in the truck racing business that he will be well able to cope with the hustle and bustle as well as the enormous weight of expectation. His nearest rivals are still the two Buggyra pilots, Markus Bösiger and David Vrsecky. So far these two drivers were always rather successful in Barcelona, and this weekend they will do their utmost to move closer to Albacete in the championship standings.
But the one trying to thwart their plans could be Jochen Hahn. As his streak of bad luck with the defective turbo chargers apparently came to an end in Nogaro, the German expressed a great desire to catch up. In the previous round he could at least already ‘dethrone’ Albacete by achieving the title ‘fastest MAN pilot’. And last but not least, Chris Levett with another Bernau MAN that was piloted by Albacete last year. In the recent timed practices the Englishman proved time and again that his performance is almost on a level with the leading foursome, but perhaps what he still lacks a little bit is a consistency for the whole race. And also ex-champion Egon Allgäuer is a serious rival. His RaceTruck is perhaps not quite as fast as the other trucks, but his experience is enormous, and especially in the second Championship races – where he mostly started from some of the front rows because of the new regulations – several drivers have already found the yellow MAN a hard nut to crack. Almost the same applies to the two Renault trucks of Markus Altenstrasser and Frankie Vojtisek, as well as their French Renault colleague Anthony Janiec. But the latter sometimes seems to lack a bit of persistence and routine in order to brave the attacks of his opponents. The same goes for the Hungarian Balazs Szobi who had to retire twice in the first lap after some fierce attacks at the start. A lot more self-assured is the winner of the 2004 Championship, Stuart Oliver. He lags a bit behind at present which is due to the fact that his truck has got no state-of-the art equipment, but in the next season he plans on mixing it at the top again with a new truck, provided that his sponsors will play along.
Such thoughts are rather alien to those guest drivers who want to achieve points in the Spanish Championship. While for the pilots contesting in the European Championship some tenths or hundredths of a second are crucial for a win, the top priority for the Vila brothers & Co is to have fun. That does not mean that they won’t fight tooth and nail, but they do not battle with dogged perseverance. For those pilots the races seem to be a sort of preparation for their important appearance on Sunday afternoon, when the races are over. Then they will be performing so-called Donuts with smoking tyres – cheered by their enthusiastic fans. That is, if the stewards will allow them to do so considering the high temperatures and the impact the heat will have on the solidity of the tarmac.