Zolder – Preliminary Report

07. September 2010Always at the beginning of autumn the FIA European Truck Racing Championship enters its final stages in Zolder. While the circuit in Most / Czech Republic is almost a ‘home track’ for the truck racing fans living in Eastern and Southern Germany, the fans from Northern and Western Germany feel the same when travelling to Zolder / Belgium, so that again a huge crowd from Germany will travel to the circuit which is in close proximity – not more than 60 or 70 kilometres – to the border. A lot of them will pitch their tents there, and for those people Zolder provides something that is unique – a camping site situated right in the centre of the track, with the truck racers circling the site in the true sense of the word. But the pilots will certainly not be in the mood to enjoy this idyllic scene – they will focus on the final stages of the championship.
Theoretically, for each and everyone of the pilots there are still 180 points up for grabs, although – since the rules changed in 2009 – nobody succeeded in collecting the maximum points of 60 in any event. According to the new rule the top eight finishers from race 1 line up on the grid in reverse order for the start of the second race, so that the winner from the first race has to overhaul seven opponents lined up in front of him in order to lift the first place trophy a second time. The Czech driver David Vrsecky (Le Mans 2009), and the Spaniard Antonio Albacete (Jarama 2009 and Albacete 2010) gave proof that this is possible, but both pilots only managed to do so on one of the two racing days.
While the Spaniard, who currently leads the championship standing, can be trusted to pull off that feat once more, the Czech title defender seems to feel a bit ‘under the weather’. The team had cherished the hope that in the last race on his home track Vrsecky would eventually be able to turn the tide in his favour – but almost everything went awry. Now the championship has turned into a three-way-fight. Albacete’s German MAN colleague Jochen Hahn is trailing by 36 points, so that he has a slight advantage over Renault pilot Markus Bösiger. While the Smolensk round was not so successful for the 2007 European Champion, in Most he and his German team mate Markus Oestreich did again a great job. For the second Markus in the MKR Renault Team the success maybe came a bit too late. Theoretically it is still possible for Oestreich to catch up with Albacete, although he is currently 92 points behind. But even if the Spaniard really blew it, there would still be Hahn and Bösiger to contend with. However, for those two pilots Zolder is a ‘fateful’ track, so to speak. In 2006 Hahn already seemed to have bagged the championship trophy, and then the Swabian – by that time a Mercedes pilot – achieved a mere 12 points in Zolder. And last year Bösiger hoped that he had had his share of bad luck after the first half of the season, and intended to launch an attack on the two leading drivers, Albacete and Vrsecky, but after having to retire several times he achieved not more than 9 points. On this accident-prone track many a hope was dashed over the years.
There aren’t any real title chances for Oestreich, but if he managed to repeat the brilliant performance he gave in Most – twice pole position, three times a podium place plus top scorer – he not only would send his German fans to their feet, but would once more give the three title contenders a rough time.
And certainly many fans from Northern Germany would have liked to cheer Hendrik Vieth, but the mechanical problems the Mercedes Benz of the private MB Motorsports team started having in Most turned out to be more severe. Considering their mini budget and the manpower shortage it was not possible for them to repair the truck in time. Now the guys around team boss Markus Bauer have set their hopes on the final round in Jarama. For the second newcomer this season, Buggyra pilot Uwe Nittel, things turned out a lot better. The ace rally driver from Swabia is going to compete right till the end of the season. And his German fans certainly hope that the shock about his spectacular crash in Most with MAN pilot Alex Lvov (RUS) does not sit too heavily on his shoulders. And there will be yet another German driver in Zolder, Sascha Lenz. The son of the ‘King of the Ring’ does not presume to be able to score points right from the start, because there will be a starter field of 23 RaceTrucks and most of them have more horsepower under the bonnet than the Lenz Mercedes.
There will be quite a few German pilots at the start in Zolder, but with 5 pilots registered France is the frontrunner. Jean-Pierre Blaise, the only Belgium truck racer, will certainly be very ambitious in his ‘Home Grand Prix’. Blaise’s and the scores of his MAN colleague and ‘arch rival’ José Bermejo are level at present and he will try everything to pull clear of the Spaniard. Blaise and Bermejo were locked in heavy combat time and again in the last races, which indeed provided full entertainment for the audience, but on the other hand left quite a few dents on both vehicles.
Zolder is a real 2-day event, and according to the forecast the weather will be rather unsettled. It will probably be cloudy most of the time and if we have tough luck there will be moderate rain now and then. The weather service did not predict heavy rain, but in view of the current freak weather it would perhaps be wise to have an umbrella at hand.