Donington – This and That
28. April 2011The opening round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship in Donington, under midsummer-like conditions, provided quite some surprises. The most important discovery for all those people who are not closely linked to the MKR Renault Team: not even Mario Kress can perform miracles; the German living in the Czech Republic also puts his trousers on one leg at a time. In a news article published by Spiegel-Online Kress was referred to as the Ross Brawn in the truck racing business which was certainly meant as a compliment. But evil to him who evil thinks, namely that the author of that article expects that Kress is going to share the fate of the British Formula One guru who in 2009 started at zero with a completely new team and a new car and finished with flying colours – just like Kress in 2010 – but was only slightly above mid-range the next year, with another completely new car, though.
But that’s just the major difference. Kress was able to continue last year’s successful activities – and MKR does again set the pace in truck racing. One of the two “Markusses”, Oestreich from Germany, is clearly leading in the overall ranking in the championship, and the “MKR seniors” firmly focus on defending their team championship title – although currently they lie 2 points behind Cepsa Truck Sport Bernau, because for the other Markus in the MKR Team, Bösiger from Switzerland – last year’s vice-champion and celebrated winner of the opening round – several things were not functioning as they should. At the beginning he wasn’t really satisfied with the set-up, and in the final race, when the Swiss driver was definitely close to victory, he often got the short end of the stick in battles you usually saw in stock car races (quote Bösiger). And the third of the trio, the Czech pilot Adam Lacko, even had to retire twice because of mechanical turbo problems.
Normally you would say that these things can happen. But those who know the perfectionist Kress well, are aware that incidents like that really bug him. On the other hand, it had a calming effect on their opponents to learn that things like that could happen to Super-Mario, too. And these opponents are, above all, the five MAN-A pilots as well as the Buggyra Freightliner drivers David Vrsecky (CZE) and Chris Levett (GBR).
But especially within the MAN family everything seemed to have turned upside down. Truck Sport Bernau’s newcomer, Uwe Nittel, was often quicker than the number 1 – not only in regard to the starting number – the Spanish Cepsa pilot Antonio Albacete. And also in the team ranking the German is ahead of the title defender. And what’s more, the former Rally vice world champion – together with his fellow countrymen Jochen Hahn (MAN) and Oestreich, who both belong to the circle of favourites anyway – saw to it that, after a long period of time, there was an all-German podium. Since the time European truck racing was honoured with the title “Championship” there have never been three Black-Red-Gold-Banners raised on the flagpoles – at least, nobody could remember such a case.
On the second day Hahn proved that he had not forgotten how to win a race, but on Saturday not only he seemed to grow desperate, when he suddenly was only marginally faster than MAN-B pilot Mathew Summerfield. After all, besides Albacete Hahn is considered to be the MAN flagship pilot. But the British private pilot currently not only makes life difficult for the MAN-A pilots Stuart Oliver (GBR) and Alex Lvov (RUS), he even was a wee bit quicker several times.
Vrsecky’s performance was on the same level as last year. He is always good for a podium place or even for a win. But for the pilot, who dominated both the 2008 and 2009 season, it could become difficult to win the title because he is lacking constancy at present. Obviously Chris Levett has already got accustomed to the dimensions of his new vehicle although in his racer career he never before piloted a bonnet truck. Especially in the action-packed final race the Brit proved on his home circuit – Levett lives nearby and also the head-office of their family-owned transport company is situated less than 60 km away – that he is not slower than his team mate Vrsecky.
Anyway, opinions are divided over this race. Due to the rule that the top 8 finishers from race 1 line up on the grid in reverse order there are a lot more overtaking manoeuvres in the second race which often bring about hair-raising situations. And several observers and drivers are of the opinion that in the final races some actions are sometimes a bit over the top – much as the spectators will like it.
And there were plenty of spectators. Usually we are informed about the total number of visitors by the respective press offices on Sunday evening. But in Donington we got the information that customarily the figures are published on Monday. But although we requested this information twice, there was no answer up till now – Thursday morning.
Several drivers were a bit confused by the behaviour of many of these – uncounted – spectators on Friday and Saturday. At the end of the finish-straight of the “Wheatcroft Straight” leading into the “Redgate” and “Hollywood” bend – where the greatest number of fans was situated, it happened particularly on Friday during the practice that time and again the visitors turned their backs on the passing truck racers. But this was by no means meant as disrespect, because the knoll people stood on allowed a clear view on a big parking site where the British Drift Championship was held at the same time. Obviously many people couldn’t make up their mind about which event they wanted to watch.
In Donington the first tyre lottery according to the new regulations took place, and things went better than initially expected. The tyres did not wear out as fast as several experts assumed they would – quite the contrary. Up to now it had not been unusual for a well-to-do top team to use several set of tyres per racing day. But now they have to economize and have to make do with one set a day – and it works like a charm. Many pilots clocked their fastest lap times towards the end of the final race, and on Sunday Oestreich achieved fastest time of the day in his 35th lap out of 37, and he did all the laps with this one set of tyres.
On Friday morning a press conference was being held – the first one after a long time on the occasion auf a FIA ETRC event, moderated by Permanent Race Director Tony Iddon. The panel consisted of Kevin Wheatcroft – as representative of the Wheatcroft family who is the owner of Donigton Park – and Fabien Calvet, Chairman of TRO and FIA Coordinator, as well as two representatives of Renault Trucks – Markus Oestreich as their pilot and the Sales Manager for Renault Trucks United Kingdom. After all, the opening round of the truck racing season seemed to be a huge Renault marketing event. Several people who are connected with other manufacturers of commercial vehicles are almost awe-stricken about the intensity with which the people from Lyon present their products at the truck racing events, always assisted by their local colleagues in the respective countries – and probably they secretly wish they had that much support for their own brand.
The world’s largest manufacturer of medium-duty and heavy-duty commercial vehicles was not presented in Donington – but was sorely missed. But that was perhaps primarily attributable to the fact that a young lady, Steffi Halm, is registered for the 2011 season as Mercedes Benz pilot for the MB Motorsport Team. Rarely ever before somebody not present was so often the topic of conversation at a race-weekend – even of the commentator at the track – as Steffi Halm. But according to MB Motorsport she will definitely take part in Misano, and probably – if nothing unforeseen happens – she is going to participate in all the other races, too.
And all those teams who did not come off so well in Donington, now set their hopes on the venue near the Italian Adriatic coast. Although the circuit located in the rolling hills of the English Midlands has got some nasty bends as well as several uphill and downhill passages, it seems not to be too demanding particularly for the top race trucks. Most of the track sections were taken at full throttle in eighth gear; only at the chicane at the entrance to the finish-straight they had to change down into seventh gear. That means that also the slower pilots and trucks were always able to keep up with the others – but it might look entirely different in Misano.
Impressions:
