Friday, 29.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Albacete – Preliminary Report

Albacete – Preliminary Report

01. June 201023 trucks are registered for the second round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship in Albacete / Spain – 7 of them race-by-race pilots who participate in the national Spanish Championship – but attentive visitors of our WebPortal have already noticed that Stuart Oliver is not listed. The 2004 champion from Great Britain had been registered by Buggyra belatedly for the round in Misano, but not all the teams had agreed to the late registration, which would have been necessary, as the deadline for the registration had already lapsed. The deadline for a late registration for the round in Albacete would have been Friday – May 21st – in Misano. Up to that date the other teams’ approval would not have been necessary. Now word is that a German guest pilot for the second Buggyra Freightliner is under discussion, and allegedly there aren’t any objections. But probably we will learn more details on Friday at the earliest.
For the first time this season the father-and-son duo Eduardo and José Rodrigues from Portugal, as well as José Bermejo are going to participate. The Spaniard, who sold his Mercedes Benz RaceTruck to a buyer in Germany, has switched to a MAN truck he bought from the Levett family – Bird’s Motorsport. The Belgium Jean-Pierre Blaise will not come to Albacete; neither will Erwin Kleinnagelvoort from the Nederlands be there.
Nevertheless, with 23 – or maybe even 24 – trucks listed, there will be plenty of on-track action. And what’s more, the weather services predict a sizzling summer weekend with temperatures of around 30 °C, but on the bleak elevated plateau of La Mancha the air temperatures will feel a lot higher than the actual ones. Considering that the Albacete circuit is relatively short, and that the top RaceTrucks are a lot faster than the trucks of the Spanish pilots competing in the Spanish Championship, we will probably see highly spectacular lapping movements again. Markus Oestreich, who had been driving a Mercedes RaceTruck back then, can tell a thing or two about it. After the spectacular races in Misano, the German – now in the MKR Renault Team – and even more his team mate Markus Bösiger, the current championship leader, will be the centre of attention. The Swiss is still handicapped by his broken hand, the intramedullary nail will not be removed before next week.
MAN’s hopes are pinned on Jochen Hahn and Antonio Albacete, who now lie 2nd and 3rd, respectively, on the championship points table. Especially the Spaniard, who covered gazillions of kilometres during training sessions on this track so that he knows every inch of the circuit and is able to do his laps in his sleep, will certainly be eager to prove that he is still MAN’s number one pilot.
On the other hand, the expectations of the fans and the pressure on the Spaniard are immense which, in some way, could put the odds in favour of the Hahn Team from Altensteig in their efforts to finish the weekend on Sunday evening still holding their point lead over Albacete. And last but not least, title holder David Vrsecky in his Freightliner demonstrated in Misano that he is always a good bet to win a race. And when eventually the question of a second driver for the Buggyra Team is cleared up, the Czech, who also occupies a leading position in the team, can face the next races even more relaxed.
Attentive visitors of our WebPortal have noticed that during the Misano racing weekend there was a “Top-Aktuell-Box” where we provide preliminary results at very short notice, long before they are listed. And now the latest information about the FIA European Truck Racing Championship are also displayed on Twitter.