Saturday in Most

29. August 2009Most - First of all we want to apologize to the ten thousands of truck racing fans who tuned in on n-tv on Friday night to watch the announced Truck Grand Prix report. Instead – without giving any information about the cancelled report – there was a special broadcast about a kidnapping case in the USA. Much more pleasant was the fact that this morning Markus Altenstrasser in his Renault with the number 6 took part in the warm-up. After another inspection of the truck the front axle was replaced once more. And also the pilot went once more to the hospital for a follow-up examination, but came back wearing a neck brace, which meant that the Austrian’s hopes of being able to participate were dashed.
Overnight there was a temperature drop of about 15 °C (59 °F). It was windy and overcast and the temperatures did not rise above 21 °C (70 °F). While recently the unwritten rule in the timed practice – fastest times can only be clocked in the first two laps, because afterwards the tyres will be worn out – were broken several times, in Most almost all the best times were set in the first two laps.
With 2:02.192 m. local hero David Vrsecky in his Buggyra Freightliner posted his fastest time right in the very first lap, followed by the two MAN pilots Jochen Hahn (GER) and Antonio Albacete (ESP), and Vrsecky’s team mate Markus Bösiger from Switzerland.
The start of the first race became a fiasco for the Team Frankie which was already stricken by Altenstrasser’s dropping out. Only a few hundred metres after the start on his home circuit, Frankie Vojtisek, the team boss of the Renault Team, whose main sponsor is Renault Trucks, collided with the two Allgäuer MAN trucks of Egon Allgäuer (AUT) and Alexander Lvov from Russia, which meant the end of the race for the Czech. The Austrian did one more lap with a flat tyre before he had to retire, too. And Lvov had to give up after 3 more laps.
Vrsecky led from the start, followed by Hahn, Albacete and Bösiger. The Czech managed to pull away gradually, while the German and the Spaniard battled hard for second position. It seemed that everybody had already settled for their positions when suddenly, with only three more laps to go, the two rivals made contact. Hahn managed to stay ahead but his left outer rear tyre was damaged. And after a few hundred metres it burst with a loud bang. Now Bösiger and the British MAN pilot Chris Levett overtook Hahn’ truck, and the man from Altensteig had to be content with 5th place. The other pilots in the points ranking were the two MAN drivers Balazs Szobi (HUN) and Stuart Oliver (GBR) followed by Renault pilot Anthony Janiec (FRA) and two other MAN pilots, Javier Mariezcurrena (ESP) and Pascal Robineau (FRA).

In the second race, where the top 8 finishers from race 1 line up in reversed order on the grid, Janiec was on pole position while the winner Vrsecky started from 8th position.
The experienced ex-champion Oliver pulled away quickly and Hahn, too, soon passed Janiec. And after one lap the balance of power was sorted out. Hahn was leading, followed by Vrsecky, Oliver, Bösiger, and Szobi, while Albacete was on 6th position. But lap after lap the Spaniard was making up positions. Oliver had dropped to 7th, Janiec was out of the points. Albacete now attacked Bösiger, who had some problems with his tyres, and then established himself in 3rd. Behind the Swiss driver, Levett had fought his way up to 5th. The leading pilot Hahn pulled away gradually and finished comfortably in 1st. In the penultimate lap Albacete saw a chance to snatch away a point from Vresecky, presently his worst opponent. He started an attack, managed to pass the Czech and crossed the finishing line in 2nd. Behind Levett, Szobi finished in 6th, and Allgäuer, Mariezcurrena, Lvov and Oliver achieved the remaining points.
But after the victory ceremony began some almost endless discussions. First it was said that Hahn would incur a 10 second penalty for overspeeding, which meant that the German would drop back to 4th, handing Albacete the win. But it got even worse for the Hahn Team. Suddenly it was questioned whether the new Rigdon tyres are in accordance with the regulations. These are tyres Hahn had already fitted on his truck in previous races and which can be purchased by everybody – as required in the regulations. And instead of becoming the winner the man from Altensteig was disqualified without further ado.
But the discussions were not over yet. Now it was about Albacete’s attack against Vrsecky. For some time a rumour was going about that both pilots would be penalized and thus would lose their podium places. Eventually the Spaniard incurred a 2 second penalty; Vrsecky was declared the winner, the Spaniard kept his second position, and – due to Hahn’s disqualification – all the others moved up 1 position. Janiec, who had finished the race in 11th, now gained 1 point.
In the team ranking both races were won by Buggyra (Vrsecky / Bösiger); in the first race Team HahnOxxo (Hahn / Szobi) was second ahead of Team Birds-Bernau (Levett / Lachèze). In the second race the two teams switched places.
In the overall ranking Albacete is still leading with 315 points, ahead of Vrsecky (307), Bösiger (249), and Hahn (220).