Nogaro – This and That

27. June 2012Anybody coming close to Circuit Paul Armagnac on Thursday could see motor homes and caravans on the sports field in Nogaro and the parking lots around the Circuit. Some were saying: “This is almost like the Truck Grand Prix at Nürburgring, where the fans also come early.” But actually these people were not fans, but a group of Romany people who rested in the little town in the Gascogne. The organizers were worried that fewer people would come, because there were not enough places to park. The city council and the organizers were successful with their negotiations in the end and the group had moved on, before it all started on Saturday. A total of 30.000 spectators showed up and this is almost as much as last year.
They got to see exciting and spectacular races combined with hot weather. Especially the second races of the day were extremely exciting, even if there were not as many battles causing material loss. The accident of the Dutch Erwin Kleinnagelvoort was not so much caused by the actual race, but by with the material. One got the impression that the Scania did not even brake, before it crashed into the stack of tires at full tilt and then into the wall. The wall easily stood the force, with which the truck (5 tons) had crashed into the wall, put the marshals and journalists rather took to their heels. Little stones that were twirling in the air destroyed the windows of a security vehicle, but Erwin was not injured thanks to the high safety standards in truck racing. Contrary to the expectations in the beginning, the championship ranking is a lot more exciting after the first third of the season. Due to the superior showing by Jochen Hahn (MAN) at the beginning of the season in Istanbul, almost no one doubted a successful defense of his title. Now, the man from the South of Germany only has one more point than his Spanish brand mate Antonio Albacete. The interesting thing is that the two main sponsors – Castrol (Hahn) and Cepsa (Albacete) – are also competitors on the contested mineral oil market. The Renault driver Markus Oestreich (40 points behind Albacete) would even be able to pester the two front-runners if they might have a bad weekend. The MKR-Renaults, indeed, seem to have caught up and Markus Bösiger proved it. Especially toward the end of each race, the Swiss was neither able to keep up with the front-runners, nor with his teammates. It seemed as if he simply could do better in Nogaro.Apparently the Swiss didn’t want to fight with his teammates Oestreich and Adam Lacko (CZE). During the qualifications for the SuperPole, he was the third fastest close behind Albacete and Hahn.
Unfortunately a race between the two truckracing amazons, Ellen Lohr (Mercedes-Benz) and Steffi Halm (MAN) did not take place in Nogaro. What is interesting is that just one year ago Steffi still drove races for the Mercedes team. Now she drives a MAN from the Lion-Team (a potential top ten truck) with an A-engine that has a lot more power than Ellen Lohr’s Mercedes. The grande dame of truckracing might have come off second best. However, Halm generally drove slightly faster laps also in races in Nogaro that counted for the French Championship. With that she stirred up the front-runners a little bit. The young German woman is now also leading the overall ranking of the French Championship.

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