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Saturday in Jarama

Saturday in Jarama

03. October 2009Jarama - The thermometer showed less than 11 °C (52 °F) in the early morning, but the discussion ensuing at the same time was quite a bit hotter. The matter of debate was the ban of the Rigdon tyres the day before. It was told that there wasn’t a sufficient quantity of the Goodyear tyres available, which substitute the Rigdon tyres, and that several teams had ordered a larger quota in advance.
In fact, some of the pilots were rejected from the first free practice because the rear axle of their trucks had the wrong tyres.
Even though some of the pilots had adjusted their set-up to a different kind of tyres, the same drivers who set the pace during the whole season were again dominating. Local hero Antonio Albacete in his MAN clocked fastest times twice. His MAN colleague Jochen Hahn (GER) and the two Buggyra pilots Markus Bösiger (SUI) and David Vrsecky (CZE) were just fractionally slower, but yet the result of the first timed practice was a bit surprising.
For the first time the trucks were split up into two groups for the qualification for the first race. In the first group the top 15 in the championship standing were racing, and the remaining pilots including the many Spanish guest drivers started in the second session.
And while everybody expected that Albacete would again leave his opponents behind, it was Bösiger (with 1:58.565 minutes) who secured pole position already in his second lap, followed by Vrsecky, Albacete and Hahn. The Spaniard made the most of the 20 minutes; he did 9 laps, driving until the very last second, and eventually succeeded in bettering his time, but not his position on the starting grid. He missed a place on the front row by less than 3 hundredths only. And nobody could have foreseen at that time that this fact would be of great significance for the rest of the day.
Chris Levett (GBR), Balazs Szobi (HUN) and Stuart Oliver (GBR), all of them MAN pilots, as well as Renault driver Anthony Janiec (FRA) completed the first 4 rows.
In the first race Bösiger put his pole position to good use and pulled away. He entered the first turn – a long-stretched almost 180 degree right-hand bend – with his team mate Vrsecky driving alongside but slightly behind, followed by Hahn, and behind Bösiger Albacete pushed hard. But the braking action that followed brought about a sort of preliminary result already. Vrsecky and Hahn sped past Bösiger, while the Spaniard was close behind the Swiss. But after only a few hundred metres it became clear what the outcome would be. In the left-hand turn Albacete was about half a car-length behind Bösiger on the inner track. Under braking the tyres locked up and gave off smoke; the two trucks made contact, and together they took to the gravel bed. The Buggyra hit the crash barrier with full force, and for a moment it appeared as if the truck would knock it over.
At the top of the field Hahn managed several times to close in on the leading Vrsecky, but in the end the Czech claimed victory. Levett crossed the line relatively unchallenged in 3rd position, while behind him the situation was packed with drama. With a comfortable advantage Szobi was in 4th position until mid-race – he was a serious contender for a victory in the Sponsors Challenge Cup – but then he and also Oliver incurred a drive-through penalty and both pilots dropped back considerably, so that Markus Altenstrasser (Renault) finished 4th, followed home by fellow Austrian Egon Allgäuer (MAN). Renault pilot Frankie Vojtisek crossed the line in 6th, ahead of José Rodrigues (POR), Dominique Lachèze (FRA), Javier Mariezcurrena (ESP) and Alexander Lvov (RUS).
At the entrance to the Parc Fermé the Mercedes Benz of the Spaniard José Bermejo caught fire suddenly, but fortunately the marshals were immediately on the scene with a sufficiently large number of fire extinguishers, so that the damage at the Madrilenian’s truck was minimal, and he was even able to start in the second race.
In the second race, where the eight top finishers of the first race start in reverse order, Lachèze was now on pole, Vrsecky lined up on 8th position, and Albacete and Bösiger had to start from 29th and 30th slot, respectively – so far, so good. But when the pilots lined up on the grid, the Freightliner of the Swiss was still sitting in the Buggyra tent; without further ado Bösiger had been disqualified from this race – so far, so good. The Buggyra team immediately lodged an appeal, and when eventually the Swiss was allowed back onto the grid, the pit lane was already closed. Bösiger as well as two other pilots who had arrived late, were not allowed to enter the grid. This means that they would have to start the race from the pit lane – so far, so good. But in the formation lap Szobi had problems with his truck, he dropped back considerably, so that the stewards saw themselves forced to have another formation lap behind the pace truck. However, for this formation lap also those pilots, who should have been starting from the pit lane, were allowed to enter the track. Everybody got caught up in confusion, particularly those people who did not understand the commentary at the track which was in Spanish.
Finally the race could begin. Ex-champion Allgäuer availed himself of his extensive experience and soon took the lead; and with Levett close behind he clearly pulled away from the chasing pack. Lachèze, Rodrigues, Vojtisek and Altenstrasser were no match for Hahn and Vrsecky and were swiftly overtaken. When two-thirds of the race was over, Hahn also succeeded in overtaking Levett and was now glued to Allgäuer. This season there is a font of anecdotes about pilots who tried in vain to overtake the Austrian, and when looking back upon previous overtaking attempts the German is still licking his wounds. Consequently Hahn refrained from using any force and was content with 2nd place; and Vrsecky stayed clear of any risky situation, too. The 4th position behind Levett meant the title for him – as long as he wasn’t passed by Albacete. And the Spaniard sliced his way through the pack from the back of the field – with a lot of vigour and probably seething with anger – and moved up to 5th, but that was not good enough, because Vrsecky now held a 31-point lead which means he has got the title all sewn up already today. No less successful was Bösiger in battling his way from the back of the field as he was soon picking off the slower trucks, and eventually he crossed the finishing line in 7th. Behind the Swiss driver, Vojtisek, Altenstrasser and MAN pilot Javier Mariezcurrena (ESP) completed the top ten. But that was not yet the end to all the confusion. After the race Buggyra withdrew their appeal; the team runs a high financial risk in case that the FIA should be of a different opinion in their final decision.
This means that Bösiger’s 7th position was suddenly ‘for the birds’, and the Swiss was not only disqualified from the race in question, but also for the whole weekend on account of ‘dangerous and anti-sportive behaviour’.
In the first race the team ranking was won by Buggyra (Vrsecky / Bösiger), followed by Team HahnOxxo (Hahn / Szobi) and Team Bird’s-Bernau (Levett / Lachèze). In the second race Team Bird’s-Bernau was ahead of Buggyra and Team HahnOxxo.
The final item on the agenda was a pleasant one – the awards ceremony for the Sponsors’ Challenge Cup, and there you could see smiling faces all around. All those pilots, who were not among the first ten in the FIA overall ranking the previous year, can participate. The sponsors from the industry had provided material and cash prizes. As already mentioned above, there was a close run towards the end. Anthony Janiec, with 588 points, was the winner of the Cup ahead of Balazs Szobi (585 points), who was also runner-up last year. The Swedish Scania pilot Mikael Johansson, who was third-place winner the previous year, gained 5th position this year, behind the two MAN pilots Jean-Pierre Blaise (Belgium) and Javier Mariezcurrena.