Friday at the Smolenskring
29. July 2011Smolenskring - Since Wednesday morning the truck racers are at the Smolenskring. The journey and also the border crossing to Russia worked like a charm. However, at the Latvian-Russian border one of the trailers decided that it had enough; the automatic gearbox stopped working. But without further ado the complete truck and trailer combination was hauled by another truck across the border where a large tow truck was already waiting, and the trailer was towed all the way – 450 km (280 miles) – right into the paddock. And that was certainly a sure sign that the atmosphere at the Latvian-Russian border was a lot more relaxed than last year. All formalities were completed in a jiffy, and at the crucial points English-speaking personnel offered their help. Procedures that took ages 12 months ago, were now done within a few hours. The Allgäuer team took an entirely different route. All team members went by ferry from Rostock to Saint Petersburg in order to take part with their RaceTrucks in a promotion event for the city’s new race circuit.
And a bit later the most interesting topic was the weather forecast which was in parts rather contradictory. Many people in the convoy had not heard so far about the recent fast spreading forest fires southeast of Moscow, as they had embarked on their journey with last week’s weather forecast in their mind, when the services predicted moderate temperatures. Furthermore, the organiser issued a gale warning for Thursday, urging all teams to make sure that their tents were secured. And then – nothing! It was almost unbearably muggy, but the predicted thunder storm was nowhere near the circuit. Instead that fate befell those people who on Thursday arrived by plan in Moscow and set forth on their 350 km (217 miles) journey to the Smolenskring by car. There were fabulous summer conditions in Moscow with around 37 °C (98 °F) and a brilliant blue sky, but on the motorway M1 which leads westbound from the Russian capital city to Smolensk, they got caught in a thunderstorm which was so severe that even the Russian truckers, who usually defy any danger, slowed down or even decided to stop on the shoulder of the road. But the region around the Smolenskring was not only spared from the heavy rain, but it was again scorching hot today, so that many of the press people and the VIP guests who had been invited to sit in one of the trucks as co-pilot, were already bathed in perspiration before the truck racers put the heat on them on the narrow track.
And then it got a bit more serious for the first time, although you never know whether all the pilots laid their cards already on the table in the additional one-hour practice. Markus Bösiger (SUI) in his Renault did only one timed lap while most of the other pilots did 15 laps or even more. And once again MAN pilot Jochen Hahn (GER) was the fastest driver, followed by his Spanish MAN colleague Antonio Albacete and the German pilot Markus Oestreich (Renault). Those three drivers finished within just a bit more than two tenths, so that apparently they already got the most out of their trucks – however, as could often be noticed, there are several rather “cunning poker players” among the truck racers. Tomorrow, after the SuperPole, we shall know more.
Impressions:
