Albacete – Preliminary Report
01. June 2011When thinking of Albacete you would take hot and dry weather for granted, at least early in June when the truck racers meet at the narrow twisty circuit on the barren highland of La Mancha every year. But according to the weather service the third round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship will probably take place under rainy conditions and with temperatures of not more than 20 degrees. For many people this will certainly bring back memories of the severe weather in 2008 when during the last race on Sunday afternoon torrential rain lashed down on the track. The race had to be stopped, in the paddock there were several centimetres of standing water and the water in the tunnel was more than one and a half metres deep, so that it was not possible to leave the paddock by using the main exit. Hopefully it won’t be that bad this year, but there is a 60-percent risk of rain. Of course, optimists will say that there is a 40-percent probability that it will stay dry.
But there are quite a few truck racers for whom some rain would not be that inconvenient, and among them perhaps the 3-M Team. Mario Kress and his two “Markusses” – Oestreich from Germany and particularly Bösiger from Switzerland – were probably not totally happy with the outcome of the races in Misano where they had been a far cry from last year’s superiority in several races. And then the MKR guys will cast their minds back to the rainy Sunday in Zolder where the Renault trucks had run their opponents virtually into the ground.
And that’s what Jochen Hahn, too, did with his opponents this year in Misano. The German MAN pilot is the first one who – since the changing of the regulations – succeeded in winning all four races that weekend. After his unfortunate start in the opening round in Donington he now managed to take the lead in the overall standing. But the uncrowned King in Albacete will be Antonio Albacete. Even though the Spanish pilot comes from Madrid, he knows the circuit being his “namesake” like the back of his hand; he can take every turn blindfold and last year collected 59 out of the highest possible number of 60 points.
With his colleague Uwe Nittel the local hero has got a strong rival in his own team. The German ace rally pilot got some nice scolding recently because of his somewhat tough way of driving now and then, and most of all because of his spectacular crash in Misano. But that Nittel had stomached this incident he proved only last weekend in Italy in his actual domain – the rally series – where he was second to none in his league. His opponent involved in the crash in Misano, the two-time European champion David Vrsecky from the Czech Republic, does not yet live up to his earlier success so far.
Moreover, it is not clear how much the Buggyra Team can still get out of their two Freightliner trucks piloted by Vrsecky and his new team mate Chris Levett (GBR). Actually, the RaceTrucks are no longer “spring chickens” and the former Buggyra mastermind, Mario Kress, has by now got his own team – MKR. And there the most successful RaceTruck constructor refines the Renault trucks on his own motor power testing station. And it’s the same with MAN, they also seem to increase their performance with each race – for instance Hahn in Misano.
And when you now add MKR Renault junior pilot Adam Lacko (CZE) who currently is ahead of the Buggyra drivers on the championship points table, then you have got all the potential candidates for the podium. Number four and five, resp., in the five-person MAN-A field, Alex Lvov (RUS) and Stuart Oliver (GBR), fell a bit short of expectations so far, because with regard to their potential both pilots could definitely finish on the podium.
But the field does not only consist of these ten drivers; the entries for the round in Albacete even amount to 32 RaceTrucks – among them 13 race-by-race pilots.
Stephanie Halm – who was the secret star of the media in Misano – will probably not participate in Albacete. The crash with another RaceTruck did not solely affect the wheel rim of her tankpool24 Mercedes, so that the damage was worse than initially thought. And for the small private team the repair work and also the procurement of spare parts proved to be more difficult than expected, so that at present there seems to be little chance that the young German pilot will be able to take part in the races in Albacete.
But maybe that’s not all bad. 32 trucks on this narrow track with lots of sharp bends – that means that collisions are bound to occur. And what’s more, the gap in the performance between most of the trucks in the Spanish Championship and the FIA ETRC racers is so tremendous that lappings are common occurrences in Albacete. But as there are quite a few pilots lacking wide racing experience, lapping them can occasionally turn into a hair-rising experience – and Markus Oestreich can tell you a thing or two about it.
On the other hand, incidents like that which can drive the top pilots to desperation, are a source of joy for the fans on the grand stands.
Impressions:
