Zolder This And That
22. September 2019Circuit Zolder in the east of Belgium is one of the longest-established circuits in truck sport. The first races here were run in the 1980s. Those who were fans then will remember some very wet race weekends. With 800 mm of rainfall in a year, Zolder receives about 60 percent more precipitation than Most. The flooding this year happened at Most two weeks ago; in Zolder, by contrast, the weather was the best the truck racers and fans could hope for.
But then the weather isn’t what it used to be, some would suggest. Others hark back to Albacete over 10 years ago. The Castilla–La Mancha region is one of the driest in Spain, with average annual rainfall of 440 mm, but the truck racers were confronted with the rainiest weekend in their experience till then. The entrance tunnel leading to the paddock was submerged by over a metre, and a long-disused gate had to be cleared of years of overgrowth to allow the teams to leave the circuit.
Most by comparison was a walk in the park.
The weather wasn’t a topic of discussion in Zolder – but very hard racing by some of the racers was. Saturday’s second race was restarted twice. If a broken-down truck has to be recovered during runtime, the race is usually stopped. Towing or lifting the truck from the danger zone takes time, and parc fermé applies to the rest of the field, which has to rearrange itself on the start grid in the running order at the end of the lap preceding the stoppage. The number of laps completed till then are considered as a separate part-race. Following the chequered flag, the individual times in the part-races are added to determine the final classification.
The first restart of Race 2 followed the original formation, because the race had been interrupted on the first lap itself (up to two laps under the rules). The second cut-off wasn’t clearly defined – a portion of the field had already crossed the line, that too under Full Course Yellow. Did the second lap count as completed, or not?
On the start straight the trucks were manoeuvred into position corresponding to their running order at the end of Lap 2. Consequently, the third start took place a full hour after the first. But at the end, only 11 laps were counted – instead of the 12 that were actually run. During this second leg the stewards were accurate in their enforcement of the rules. Nobody could remember any other instance in the championship in which a truck racer picked up four drive-through penalties.
The delay put the squeeze on the organisers, who had to ensure that racing was over before the 6 pm “motor silence” deadline for vehicles not registered for road use. That meant a race from the supporting programme had to be aborted midway.
Motor silence also applies till 10 am on Sunday mornings. The teams actually welcome the couple of hours more it gives them to sleep – in Le Mans this coming weekend they hit the track at around 8 am on both days. There’s no day nor night at the 24 Heures Camions, and it can get quite late on Saturday night. It most certainly will, if five-times champ Jochen Hahn (Iveco) scores five points more than his nearest rival Antonio Albacete (MAN) – the German will then have taken Title #6.
Impressions:
