Misano – This and That

25. May 2012All worries about the fact that the second race of the FIA Truck Racing Championship was impacted by the fact that each team did not have enough time to service their race trucks faded when the train of trucks arrived in Misano at the World Circuit on Wednesday night. The opposite was the case – because almost all teams had finished their work on Thursday, Friday turned out to be a day to relax. However, the MKR – Renault team was busy. The superiority that Jochen Hahn (GER) showed in Istanbul with his MAN was something that bothered the mastermind and head of MKR, Mario Kress. Indeed, in all four races Markus Oestreich (GER) was able to stand on the podium. Someone else surprised the watchers in Misano: David Vrsecky (CZE), who sometimes seemed to trail behind, won each of the second races of the day. According to the current ranking, neither Oestreich nor Vrsecky will be a serious threat to MAN driver Hahn in winning the title. Antonio Albacete has better chances to do that. The Cepsa driver currently seems to be the only rival who can drive on the same level as Hahn. The race in Misano was full of penalties due to crossing markers. It said that on Saturday at noon it were already 55 and that was only the beginning. Reprimands, penalties and cancelled lap times – during the timed training and in the SuperPole – were the order of the day. Many drivers felt punished unduly, especially Markus Bösiger the Swiss Renault driver. During the SuperPole on Sunday both of his two fastest laps were cancelled – which meant that he had to start from place number 10 instead of the second row. MKR trucks are equipped with cameras both in front and in the back. MKR said that this way they had been able to show the race commission that the Swiss driver did not even touch one single penalty marker. The race commission, however, trusted the observers at the race track. Maybe this was pivotal, because the pit radio announced that Bösiger will not be at the starting line in Jamara. He himself indicated once that he only planned to race in Jamara once this year - in October. Other than that there was a relatively big exhibition from the industry. It was expected that MAN and Renault as the real protagonists of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship would have big exhibition areas, but also other manufacturers, such as DAF, Volvo, Mercedes, Iveco etc. exhibited. The booth of Iveco was right next to the tent of the Schwabentruck team. This is the team of the only Iveco driver Gerd Köber (GER). Schorsch Glöckler, the head of the team, felt left alone by the manufacturers of his race trucks. Ellen Lohr (GER) is hoping for more power in her next race in Nogaro, because for some reason the engine control unit did not fit to the race truck. When they tried to use a different one on Sunday morning for the warm-up session, with which one she was 4 seconds faster each lap, there was only black smoke. MB – Motorsport consider themselves on the right way, though. Concerning one issue they are definitely trend-setting. Markus Bauer was extremely proud to have the only Euro 6 vehicle, the new Actros, in his paddock.

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