Saturday on the Ring

25. July 2009Nürburgring - For those people who had been gathering at the Müllenbach Loop to attend the concert with pop star Sasha and many others the night was rather short. Withstanding the almost ice-cold weather during the night, with scattered light rain showers, they stayed on until early this morning. When the first fans set out for the grand stands and the paddock, the temperature was only slightly above 10 °C (50 °F). During the day the weather was rather unpredictable, alternating between sunshine and drizzle all the time. The weather was never really fine nor really bad either. In the morning during the warm-up – which was actually not very significant – MAN pilot Antonio Albacete and the two Buggyra drivers Markus Bösiger and David Vrsecky were only separated by 3 tenths, with Jochen Hahn another 3 tenths behind. But in the following first race pole setter Bösiger was not awed by these figures. Right from the start he took a lead he was never to lose and, and with a great aplomb he had not shown so far this season he steered his truck to an unchallenged victory. The runner-up place seemed to be a safe bet for Albacete who, after only a few laps had managed to pull away from Hahn. But that was a thing the German could not accept. Soon he was stuck firmly to the tail of Albacete’s truck, and now the crowd witnessed a desperate fight, featuring the black MAN and the red one. Again and again it looked as if Hahn could grab an opportunity to pass, but the Spaniard held his position against the German. Three laps before the finish, while entering the NGK chicane, the Swabian started his umpteenth attack, but suddenly his truck did a turn, and Vrsecky, who was close behind, put the emergency exit to good use and got back on the track in front of Hahn. The MAN pilot was soon hard on the heels of the Czech, but he had no chance to overtake and finally had to leave the third podium place to Vrsecky. MAN pilot Egon Allgäuer and fellow Austrian Markus Altenstrasser (Renault) crossed the finish line in 5th and 6th position, respectively. Both had a particularly peaceful race, which is more than you can say for the rest of the pilots in the places for the points. The fact that all of them were MAN drivers was absolutely no reason for mutual consideration. Eventually the Hungarian Balazs Szobi finished in 7th, ahead of the two Brits Stuart Oliver and Chris Levett. At the beginning Alexander Lvov was also among the front-runners, but he had to retire due to technical problems, so that Javier Mariezcurrena brought his MAN home in tenth, the last place for the points.
Due to the reverse-grid line-up Oliver was on pole in the second race, ahead of Szobi. Bösiger had to start from 8th spot on the grid, according to the new regulations. Alongside the Swiss was Albacete and ahead of him were Vrsecky and Hahn. The race started off in a very civilized manner, quite contrary to some of the other actions we already witnessed this season. But Oliver could only enjoy his pole for one lap; then Allgäuer pushed ahead of him. After that the Englishman lost some more places. Szobi dropped way down the field right after the start and later had to retire because of technical problems. Bösiger made a good getaway, as did Vrsecky and Hahn. Soon they closed in on Altenstrasser, and then the Austrian and the Swiss certainly had a sense of déjà vu. Still in the opening lap their trucks collided heavily. Bösiger incurred a drive-through penalty and dropped back considerably. Altenstrasser had to give up mid-race because of a tyre failure. At the top of the field Vrsecky passed Allgäuer and a bit later overtook also Hahn. In the 9th lap Allgäuer was eventually overtaken by Albacete, too, at the entrance to the Mercedes Arena. But the Austrian claimed an unchallenged 4th place, because the chasing field, headed by Oliver, was more than 15 seconds behind. The Englishman was again under constant attacks from Levett and Lvov, but finally he claimed 5th place ahead of fellow Brit Levett and the Russian. Frankie Vojtisek (Renault) and the two MAN pilots Dominique Lachèche and José Rodrigues secured the remaining position in the points.
The final event of the day was the first Mittelrhein Cup race. Of course the focus was on the three Lenz trucks with Heinz-Werner Lenz, Sascha Lenz and Uwe Nittel, as well as Hans-Joachim Stuck. For the latter the Truck Grand Prix has already become a fixture in his racing calendar. Particularly interesting in sportive respect was the battle between Levett and Oliver who both were at the start here, because points gained in the Mittelrhein Cup count towards the British Championship.
Levett was on pole position, ahead of Stuck and Oliver, Nittel lined up 9th, Sascha Lenz was placed on 11th, and H.-W. Lenz had to start from the back of the field of 26 entrants, as his transponder conked out yesterday in the timed practice, and therefore there were no times clocked for the three-times European Champion.
Already at the exit of the Mercedes Arena Oliver crashed into Levett’s MAN, resulting in severe damage of their trucks, which forced both drivers into early retirement. This allowed Stuck to take over the lead and ultimately the win. Heinz-Werner Lenz made a great charge through the pack, but had to stop at the pit after only a few laps due to a tyre failure. While others would have given up, this was not an option for the ambitious three-times European Champion. He continued the race although he was 2 laps behind, now driving at the level of the winner Hans-Joachim Stuck. But of course it was only good enough for 18th place. Sascha finished in 5th, and Nittel – in his first-ever truck race – gained an unexpected 6th position.
Runner-up was Philippe Arlaud and Richard Collett was third on the podium.
In the team ranking the first race was won by Buggyra (Vrsecky / Bösiger) ahead of Team HahnOxxo (Hahn / Szobi) and Team Frankie (Altenstrasser / Vojtisek). The second race was won by the newly-founded Team Bird´s-Bernau (Levett / Lachèze), followed by Buggyra and Team HahnOxxo.
In the overall ranking Albacete is still leading with 272 points, ahead of Vrsecky (249), Bösiger (207), and Hahn (190).