Most – Preliminary Report
24. August 2011After the costly, time-consuming and almost adventurous “Truck Battle Russia” journey the 7th round in Most / Czech Republic was “business as usual” for the teams of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship. However, it was not all that long ago that the journey to Most was a sort of “adventure” trip; long queues at the border, customs formalities etc. But these are things of the past, same as the relatively small number of entrants. In Most not only all twenty FIA pilots will be participating, but there is also a race-by-race pilot registered, Heinz-Werner Lenz (Mercedes Benz). Another legendary German truck racer, Gerd Körber, is not on the entry list – much to the chagrin of his many fans. The Iveco Schwabentruck Team definitely plans to take part in four races this season, but – funding and time permitting – they are not averse to participating in the one or other additional event. In that case Most should have suited them fine because of the relatively short journey there and the many German fans always flocking to Most, where the commentaries at the track are always bilingual – in Czech and German. And there are not only three German pilots belonging to the leading group registered – Jochen Hahn (MAN), Markus Oestreich (Renault) and Uwe Nittel (MAN) – but Steffi Halm (Mercedes Benz), the only female FIA pilot and darling of the media and fans alike, will also take part.
Hahn will come to Most with an enormous advantage, sitting 65 points clear of his Spanish brand colleague and title defender Antonio Albacete. But as a pilot can collect up to 60 points at a race weekend, there is still a fair chance for Oestreich, the two Czech drivers Adam Lacko (Renault) and David Vrsecky (Freightliner), Nittel and the Swiss pilot Markus Bösiger (Renault), to mix it at the top in the final stage. And everybody had already learnt the hard way some time or other that suddenly there is a change for the worse and you have to watch your opponents pass by.
The round in Most is a 3 day event with the free practice sessions starting on Friday. An action-packed programme is by now a tradition, although last week one of the series of the supporting programme had to be cancelled, thus upsetting the schedule considerably. The latest version – number 2 – is published on this portal. Among others, the breaks have been extended a bit, but this could be an advantage, because in Most the organisers always see to it that in the supporting programme there are a lot of attractive shows for the audience, such as acrobatic flying, stunt shows or cheerleader groups. And also the great number of companies represented in the paddock always offered their guests something special – particularly Buggyra and MKR Renault, who view the event in Most as their “home” Grand Prix.
The unpredictability of the summer weather in Central Europe this year will continue next weekend. For Friday the weather forecasters predict tropical summer weather with temperatures in the mid-30s (around 95 °F) and a sudden change on Saturday with rain storms and a drop of temperature below 20 °C (68 °F). For Sunday they again predict sunshine – however, with very comfortable 25 °C (77 °F).
But people who have followed the forecasts given by the weather services recently, certainly know how often and how fast they are out of date.
Impressions:
