Our drivers had quite high ambitions before the event in Jarama, Spain. David wanted again, as far as possible, to reduce the margin, by which Allgäuer was ahead of him on the second place after the previous eights event in Jarama, and Gerd wanted to draw closer to this duo, to be able to think about the final podium placement. On the red-hot racetrack near Madrid it turned out, how contradictory can be the intend and reality - the plan was successful just fifty-fifty...
All the important things began in the Saturday's qualification race, into which Gerd started from the first, and David from the third line. Both of them started off perfectly, Gerd took the lead, and immediately in the first curve David succeeded to get behind him. They were followed by a motley ruck, however nobody expected that Hahn, the German driver, would smash through the field with his Mercedes out of control, because brakes of his truck refused to function. Gerd had a little lead and so he was out of the pileup, in which David lost all his bumpers and wings. Moreover, he lost the engine bonnet with headlights and supply cables. Nevertheless, he succeeded to get away from the scrum, and in the first lap he passed the finish line on the seventh place. However, the race was stopped, because another crash, where after the collision with the Swiss Seiler, the domestic driver Manuel Gozalo performed a multiple somersault and his trucks ticked into billboards at the end of the track. Mechanics and technicians used the two-hour break to make the most needed repairs of David's truck so that he could start in the final part of the qualification race. This part had six laps only, which were added to the initial part. There were no doubts about the Gerd's total win, since he won both parts. David won points for his sixth place in this qualification race.
The interval between the qualification and cup race was substantially reduced, however mechanics succeeded to repair and prepare David's truck in so far that he could start in the main race. The start took place practically at nightfall, and Spain marshals prepared an annoying surprise for Gerd. Namely, green lights came unexpectedly on so early that only the domestic driver Albacete managed to catch up these signals and react immediately (miraculously ...)!? Grandstands shouted and Antonio won by one second ahead of Gerd. David fought to a finish, and in spite of his handicap with a damaged truck without any aerodynamics; he forged, in the fourth lap, overtaking Vojtíšek, to the fourth place. However, he was eight seconds behind the perfectly running Pulič, but he did not succeed to come close to him. A lap by lap he had better times than the Croatian, and David crossed the finish line by only 18 hundredth of a second behind him! His sorrow was even deepened by FIA marshals, who decided that his Buggyra was by 60 kilograms lighter as it is prescribed by cup regulations. They disregarded at all the fact that many parts of his truck body including aerodynamic components were cut off in an unavoidable accident. So, the Allgäuer's lead before David was finally better than before Belgium, and Gerd breathed down the David's third place.
Also on Sunday, Gerd proved that he is a genuine professional. He won the qualification race with consummate skill, and subsequently also the cup race. So, he won seven races from the last eight pointed ones, and once he was second! This time, David's effort was sufficient for the sixth place in the qualification race and the fifth place in the main race.
As regards total positions, the result of this "semi-successful" two-day event was that both our pilots exchanged their places. Gerd is now third losing 24 points behind the second Allgäuer, David is by 11 points behind Gerd. With regard to the fact that this year's champion's title gained Antonio Albacete (by the way - last year's Buggyra's driver) on his home circuit in advance - the only remaining open point in the last even of this racing season are places two, three, and four. One thing is certain - that one driver with a Buggyra truck will be among three best continental truckers in Europe for one hundred percent!!! Or that it would otherwise...?
