Zolder Preliminary Report
18. September 2013There are 180 points still up for grabs at the three remaining rounds of the 2013 FIA European Truck Racing Championship. That any one driver can collect all 180 is mathematically possible, and by that reckoning even Markus Bösiger, at present seventh in the standings, could have a shot at the title. In actual fact the outcome of the championship now hinges on the duel between leader Spaniard Antonio Albacete and German defending champ Jochen Hahn. Only seven points separate the two MAN pilots, and should either be struck by misfortune as the season rolls to its climax, there’s a third MAN pilot waiting in the wings — Markus Oestreich. Clearly, there’s no taking the championship away from Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (MAN).
In the team championship too MAN teams Truck Sport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Oestreich) and Castrol Team Hahn Racing (Hahn / Mäkinen) are now in an unassailable position. That’s something twice team champion MKR Renault couldn’t have expected at the start of the season. It was commonly expected that MKR would play a decisive role in deciding both championships. Instead, what we have now is yet another truck – the Buggyra-Freightliner of David Vršecký (CZE) – ahead of the best Renaults in the field, the race steeds of Adam Lacko (CZE) and Bösiger. The MKR team will continue the strategy it used to good effect in Most — to go flat out for the podium in every race. With some luck they could even take a victory or two. Zolder has been a happy hunting ground for the MKR drivers in past years, particularly recall the overwhelming one-two victory in the last race of the 2010 weekend. Only then it had rained bucketfuls — and there were no uniform-spec tyres. This year round it will probably stay dry, and the tyres meanwhile will play no differentiating role, being all of a single type and distributed to the teams by lottery.
Even so, Bösiger and Lacko, and Vršecký as well, can well – at least in the second race of each day with the reversed starting order – hold their own against the apparently all-conquering MAN phalanx. We haven’t received any entry list yet, but we do know that the tankpool24 team, which was so badly buffetted by events at the last weekend in Most, is going to be here. The team from Nürtingen has managed to identify and rectify the grave damage to both its engines. This took a lot of after-hours effort on the part of the entire team, whose members are all primarily employed elsewhere and only work freewill for MB Motorsport. But even their main sponsor tankpool24 pitched in with additional funds that would at least limit the financial damages — because one of the two engines that gave up the ghost in Most had only just been overhauled. In any case, the German fans, who traditionally turn up in Zolder in hordes, can look forward to see their Ellen Lohr not in civvies next to an out-of-commission truck but once again in race overalls tearing around the track.
The many fans of “Mr Truckracing” Gerd Körber will look out for his Iveco in vain. As in recent seasons, the former European champion has been a race-by-race pilot this year as well; the Schwabentruck team from Ulm had a budget for only four events, and like the tankpool24 team consists exclusively of volunteers. Teams like these two, which don’t have any factory backing, naturally find it real tough to keep up with the top teams financially. But Team Schwabentruck has the benefit of engine developments from Iveco’s Arbon research facility, which also builds the engines for the Iveco factory team in the Dakar rally, and Körber and his young teamsters have massively profited from the Dakar inputs. “Mr Truckracing” will at least be thankful that, despite having started only thrice so far, he has managed to collect 24 points — putting him ahead of 10 full-season FIA starters.
The German fans will sadly also miss Stephanie Halm, another of their darlings. The young pilot is the reigning French champion – her Lion MAN team is headquartered in Lyon – and is on course for that title this year again. And, of course, the fourth round of the French championship just had to coincide with the eighth round of the FIA ETRC. How very French.
Even so the fans are sure to get their money’s worth — if the heavens hold up, that is. The temperature is expected to hold at 20°C levels, even if the mercury is forecast to drop to single digits in the nights. And with dry weather expected through the weekend, and plenty of current tickets still available, we’ve got the most inviting conditions you can hope for to visit Circuit Zolder.
Impressions:
