Saturday in Nogaro

18. June 2011Nogaro - Dark clouds looming over the Gascogne early in the morning warned the truck racers that they should be prepared for another day with unpredictable weather at the Nogaro Circuit. During the warm-up – which took place today as the free practice sessions had already been accomplished on Friday – the weather conditions were quite favourable and Antonio Albacete (ESP) in his Cepsa MAN clocked fastest lap time of the weekend so far. In the timed practice the times were already considerably slower, although there had only been a light drizzle before the practice began. Obviously MKR Renault pilot Markus Bösiger (SUI) was the driver best able to cope with the track conditions, or had the other top pilot exercised restraint?
The top-ten, besides Bösiger the three MAN drivers Uwe Nittel (GER), Albacete and Jochen Hahn (GER), the two Buggyra Freightliner pilots Chris Levett (GBR) and David Vrsecky (CZE), as well as Markus Oestreich (GER) in his Renault, the Spanish race-by-race pilot Javier Mariezcurrena (MAN), the Czech driver Adam Lacko (Renault) and MAN pilot Oliver Stuart (GBR), were separated by 1 second only. Several pilots finished by only a hundredth of a second of each other. This meant that no conclusions could be drawn for the SuperPole.
And then it started drizzling again and the driving conditions became treacherous. In mid-race of the 10-minute SuperPole many observers rubbed their eyes, Oliver was leading the field. And suddenly several sections of the track dried out very fast. At first Bösiger took the lead, but then the lap times started tumbling and the positions of the trucks changed so quickly that you almost lost track. And in the final lap the order was once again upset considerably. Hahn snatched pole position away from under Nittel’s nose at the very last second with an advantage of a mere tenth of a second. And the German pilot was just 2 thousandths quicker than his team mate Albacete. Behind the three MAN pilots the other drivers finished in the following order: Vrsecky, Lacko, Levett, Oestreich, Bösiger, Oliver and Mariezcurrena.
Podium candidates such as the French pilot Anthony Janiec (Renault) and the acclaimed winner of the second race in Albacete, the Russian pilot Alex Lvov (MAN), didn’t even qualify for the top-ten this time.
Stephanie Halm could once more improve her performance which put her into 17th place on the grid in a field of 23, ahead of some experienced truck racers such as the British driver Mathew Summerfield (MAN) and the Belgium pilot Jean-Pierre Blaise (Renault), whose RaceTrucks have got a lot more engine power than the tankpool24 Mercedes of the young German.
The first race started accompanied by light rain, but the pilots were not impressed – or were they? Because everybody behaved in a very civilized manner. The race progressed with everyone holding the position they had started in. Lacko was the only one of the top pilots who managed to move up one place by overtaking Vrsecky and moving into 4th. On the podium there was an all MAN triumvirate with a clearly superior Hahn taking top place honours and Nittel and Albacete in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Behind Vrsecky his team colleague Levett finished in 6th, followed by Oestreich, Bösiger, Oliver and Mariezcurrena.
The most exciting fights took place at the back of the field – between Stephanie Halm and Mathew Summerfield. At the start the young German managed to get ahead of the Brit whose MAN is said to have some more HP, and from then on Summerfield was stuck firmly to the tail of the tankpool24 Mercedes. Especially at the end of the endlessly long back straight the MAN pilot tried time and again to get past by braking extremely late on the inner track of the almost 180 degree turn. But Halm always managed to counterattack. Almost neck and neck the two pilots entered the next combination consisting of two left turns and then Halm was back in front. But when there were only a few more laps to go, Summerfield turned the tables and grabbed the 17th place the Swabian had aimed for.
Later Jean-Pierre Blaise, who had finished ahead of Halm, incurred a 30-second penalty for overspeeding so that she was back in 17th again.
In the second race, where the top 8 finishers from race 1 line up in reverse order, Bösiger was now on pole with Oestreich lining up alongside him. Hahn and Albacete were placed on the 4th row. Pole setter Bösiger did not have a good start; Oese who was driving alongside the Swiss obviously had some serious brake troubles at the front axle, and already in the second bend Vrsecky who was driving close behind the German crashed head on into the rear of the Renault. While the Czech managed to drive on and even took the lead, Oestreich spun off and landed in the gravel, creating a giant plume of dust. In the general mayhem Albacete and Hahn established themselves in 2nd and 3rd position, respectively, with Bösiger chasing them. During the race the top quartet – still driving in the same order – was clearly pulling away from the rest of the field. After quite some time Oestreich rejoined the field with his truck giving off clouds of smoke. But the smoke came only from a tyre which scraped against the bodywork. But for the sake of the team ranking the man from Fulda held on and finished the race in 20th, a rather unaccustomed position for him.
Behind Bösiger, Lacko had a lonely race in 5th position, and also Nittel and Lvov finished the race rather unchallenged in 6th and 7th, resp. But for the last places within the points – nos. 8, 9, and 10 – there were some fierce battles going on right to the end. Oliver crossed the finish line in 8th, closely followed by Levett and Mariezcurrena.
Once more Stephanie Halm gave an impressive performance. Again she outpaced several of her opponents with more powerful trucks and finished in 14th position.
In the overall ranking Hahn – with a total of 175 points – could further extend his lead, followed by Albacete (130), Oestreich (107), Nittel (96), Lacko (95), Vrsecky (87) and Bösiger (78).
The team ranking in the first race was won by Cepsa-Trucksport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Nittel) ahead of Buggyra (Vrsecky / Levett) and MKR Team 14 Juniors (Lacko / Janiec). The winner in the second race was Buggyra, followed by Cepsa Trucksport Lutz Bernau and MKR Technology (Bösiger / Oestreich).

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