Our team arrived to the Alastaro circuit, Finland, on Wednesday night. On Thursday, the mechanics first set up the pits and then immediately started working on both trucks. In particular, it was necessary to remove the gearboxes and replace them by new ones brought by ZF service technicians. Most of the team management, led by Martin Koloc, arrived in the afternoon.
The Finnish organizers prepared a rich program for spectators. In addition to the European Championship, the circuit also hosted a Finnish Truck Championship race and four other categories, which was why the racing weekend actually took three days. The Supertruck Division opened up on Friday afternoon with two warm-up sessions. And the fact is that our drivers started in an excellent manner. It took only the opening lap to find Gerd and David on the first and third places, respectively. However, during the twenty minutes reserved for the practice, the fact that David did not know the circuit so well started showing, and he was ultimately overtaken by all other drivers, but only Bösiger from Switzerland was faster than Gerd. The second warm-up was a carbon copy of the first one, the only difference being that David improved his time by seven tenths of a second, finishing sixth. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that Luostarinen, racing on his home turf and the leading driver after the first half of the championship, finished only fourth in both of the sessions.
The Saturday morning warm-up saw David improving his Friday time by half a second, thus contributing to the pack being tight indeed. The difference between David in the sixth place and Bösiger, who finished first again, was less than a second. Gerd finished fifth and complained about stiff steering as soon as he returned to the pits. The mechanics identified a defect in the right wheel swivel pin and repaired it in next to no time. Shortly before noon, the drivers had the last warm-up, and it was Luostarinen who blew his horn to announce his attack. Just one lap into the warm-up, he achieved a time which only Gerd succeeded to match, but not quite, falling short by 0.12 s. Bösiger in the third place was slower by almost four tenths of a second. While David was slower than in the morning, he still finished sixth. Almost five hours were left before the beginning of the official practice session, and the mechanics thus had more than enough time to perform routine maintenance tasks and also to have a look at the left steering swivel pin of Gerd's truck. Gerd's performance in the most important heat of the day was excellent. After the first ten minutes, he was in the second place, losing a mere four thousandths of a second to Bösiger, while David had a tug-of-war with Matìjovskı for the sixth position. A tactical battle ensued, with the drivers making stops in the area which makes up for the absence of a pits access road in Alastaro. The first pause seemed to benefit Gerd, who set a new circuit record shortly afterwards. Moreover, he was the first ever truck driver who achieved a time under 1 minute and 30 seconds in Alastaro, which fact was also appreciated by representatives of other teams. David still could not find the best track, losing more than a second to his best Finnish time, and remained on the seventh position, behind Matìjovskı driving a Tatra truck. The last few minutes of the practice session were dramatic indeed. Bösiger first stole our team's show, being sixteen hundredths of a second faster than Gerd. At that time, Gerd was parking in the pits, and there were less than five minutes left till the end of the one-hour practice session limit. Moreover, all he was allowed were two laps, as he had already used up 13 of the fifteen laps permitted. Gerd made a fast decision to make use of the last chance and set out for the track. He first took a slower, more leisurely lap to get ready, and then made his final attack. The timer once again stopped at a time under 1 minute and 30 seconds, but he was still two tenths of a second slower than Bösiger... At that time, most of the drivers had used up their fifteen lap limit, and only David had one lap left. "Give it a try, it's make or break!" he heard in his earphones. And make it he did - to the sixth position, i.e. to the third row of the Sunday qualification race.
Next morning, all the drivers checked the settings of their vehicles for the last time during a warm-up. All of them experienced a shocking awakening, as Gerd's Buggyra set a new circuit record, 0.467 second better than the previous one, right in the first regular lap. David's performance was steady and he finished sixth, before Matìjovskı. Bösiger had the best start into the qualification race, closely followed by Gerd. He was attacked by Luostarinen in the very first cerner, but Gerd refused to be pushed off the track and increased the gap between himself and Luostarinen. The leading duo then quickly established a sufficient lead time, maintaining it until the end of the race. Luostarinen, who was driving in the third position, made a mistake toward the end, damaging his front axle, which forced him out of the race. The third place thus fell to Ferté, who calmly repelled all attacks of Albacete, thus grabbing a better position in the second row of the championship race roster. David succeeded in finishing in the excellent fifth place. He also had a very good start into the main race, holding the fourth position after Bösiger, Gerd and Albacete. He maintained it until the fifth lap, when he was heavily attacked by Luostarinen and Ferté. In a right corner, the two pushed him off the track, leaving him helplessly buried in a safety zone. Bösiger won once again, with half a second over Gerd, while the rest of the pack was scattered, the drivers losing quite some time to the leading pair.
After six races, the difference between Luostarinen in the first place and Gerd in the fourth position is a mere nine points. David loses four points to Matìjovskı in the sixth place. There is certainly a lot to look forward to at our home circuit in Most.
