Buggyras Have Managed Excellent Start to New Season
The beginning of every racing season is encircled with many question marks. However, the racing drivers of the Buggyra International Racing System team gave quickly a clear answer to all the questions and became hot favourites of the second race as the winners of the first one in individuals as well as in teams. They were not even stopped by the very unpleasant weather on Saturday, rainy and cold.
The story was opened by David, who won both Saturday free trainings, while Markus was first fourth and then third. In the decisive duel with the stop watch, defining the position in the starting field of the qualifying race, our two drivers switched position. Markus was the quickest of all and managed to beat the local driver Albacete by nearly half a second. Hahn was third and David immediately followed.
Under the most unpleasant climatic conditions Markus made use of his field position and immediately took the lead after the green signal. Still in the first round David moved forward to the third position right behind Albacete, but in the fourth round, after a collision with Hahn, dropped down one position. In addition the collision with Hahn resulted in slight damage to his front tyre and break of a rear shock absorber. This disadvantage was used up by the British driver Oliver, who overtook David then. However, he did not enjoy his new position long for David quickly got used to the worse stability of his truck and returned to his original position.
Before the start of the cup race the rain became heavier, sometimes changing into a real downpour. The organizers postponed the start and the colourful field was waiting for the start signal for about half an hour. After that the race was started nevertheless and the drivers had to pass two guided rounds first and another fourteen rounds next. A quick start soon turned into a burial place of trucks and their drivers´ hopes. The very first curve excluded many trucks, and more followed in the following stages of the race. Trouble was even encountered by most favourites, even though in many cases not due to their own faults. The best evidence is David ´s testimony: “I braked well before the curve and started to corner within the ideal trace. Suddenly Hahn turn up in front of me, returned by truck to the straightforward direction and both of us then continued along the non-shortened formula track. Before I managed to turn back at a suitable place, all of those who continued in the race were far away!“ David thus lost about half a round and got to 17th position. Markus was just two positions better, due to his collision with Albacete. Both Buggyras continued in the race, though, which cannot be said about the MAN trucks driven by Albacete, Hahn or the Austrian Allgäuer, or about Renault driven by his countryman Altenstrasser. All the confusion after the start was utilised by the experienced Vojtíšek, who knew how to drive in water and even managed to avoid all the collisions. The initial loss scored by our two pilots seemed too big and hopeless at first, but this might only have been true if the steering wheels of the two Buggyras had been held by drivers other than David and Markus. As soon as after the first third of the race both of them already held scored positions and continued to fly forward – their round times were always 3 – 5 seconds shorter than the times of the other drivers. Four rounds before the finish David got to a position securing him a place on the winners´ rostrum and Markus immediately followed. There was no point in further chasing for both Vojtíšek (first) and Oliver (second) had a big advantage. Despite that David was happy: “I did not drive under similar conditions to date. Sometimes I could hardly see more than just a grey mist in front of me and I could not even know whether I might encounter a truck across the track or not. I could not drive better then!“ Markus was much less satisfied, as his fourth position was replaced with 6th position due to the penalisation with 25 seconds. “I cannot recall where I overtook under the yellow flag signal. The conditions were nearly against the rules and so it was easy to overlook the referee hidden somewhere behind the crash barriers. I might be overtaking a standing truck too,“ commented Markus later in the paddock.
David became the king of the day on Sunday. First he assured for himself the best position in the qualifying race by the quickest time in the time practice. Then he managed a perfect start and maintained his leading position for the whole ten rounds in the exciting race. The success of the team colours was multiplied by Markus, who managed to overtake Albacete in the seventh round and finish second. The leasing trio was only followed by the French Belloc and Hahn, the rest of the field finishing with increasing loss.
David and Markus literally performed a going off to war in the last struggle of the opening racing weekend. They started as if with rocket engines and within the first three rounds developed a five-second advantage over the third Albacete. Especially David ´s Bugggyra abounded with strength, which immediately reflected in a new track record. In the middle of the race David even left Markus behind, peacefully finishing the remaining rounds. In the fifteenth round he and Markus were already awaited by the blue signalling wall and the spectators quickly came to understand who the mechanics and the other members of the team in the new matching overalls and shirts belonged to! “I was a little afraid in the qualifying race for we had the trucks prepared for wet road and eventually it was only damp. But the main race was something I could really enjoy. As if I did not have to steer at all, everything worked better than well,“ said David with appreciation after the prize giving ceremony at the short press conference, smiling to all sides.
In the overall score David, also thanks to the previous results, took the lead, with Markus holding the second position. Like in the past season Buggyra has also taken the lead in the team competition.
