Our team went in for the last but one race of this season with a clear view to prepare the best possible position for Gerd’s “end-of-season” attack to gain the championship and David’s attack to get near to the leading trio. However, to put a simply written idea into action on the track is as difficult as to turn water into wine!
Though, the beginning was brilliant – David won the Saturday’s timed practice, and Gerd gained the starting position in the second row. Just David managed a literally old hand’s trick. He burst in the practice like a thunder flash, and he succeeded to reach the fastest lap even before the others coped with the approaching drizzle. The track began to get wet, and times reached were slower and slower. Just to be sure, David tried to pass two practice laps under worse conditions, and could tranquilly leave for the pits.
However, David didn’t go away with the qualification race start according to his wish. Even before the first turn, Östreich got ahead of David, and in the same turn also Gerd. David did not want to risk any fratricidal collision and made room for Gerd. Before he managed to close the gap, Hahn, another Gerd’s fellow-countryman, squeezed through it. The first attack of a chugging red MAN-truck of Albacete came soon, who started from the eighth position only. But David took blustering grandstands in his stride, and kept the Spain matador away and allowed him no serious attacks. With a minimum lead of two seconds, a German trio was at the head of the field, where Gerd was in the middle in second place. An unexpected change came in the half of the final lap, when David’s Buggyra slowed down markedly. For nothing, not only Albacte got ahead of David as well as other five drivers in turn, who were losing almost half a minute beforehand. David hardly came in tenth place. A poor balm to David’s hurt feelings was his shift to the ninth place after Hahn’s disqualification. He got another cruel blow in pits, when it was found that the Saturday’s race ended for him. In spite of each and every effort of mechanics and engineers as well, it was not possible to prepare David’s truck for the main race at so short notice. „It is so bad luck, that I prefer to make no more comments,“ David got upset over the dismantled machine. „Seemingly, I lost the chance to reach the third or fourth place in total. However, it is not he end at all, I’ll fight further!“
But he did not managed it in the Saturday’s cup race. On the other hand, Gerd resolutely dived head first into the struggle for the longed-for championship, but the only rival, with whom he indeed emulated, was Albacete, the home-brewed driver. This Spaniard started sharp near the bone of regularity, and promptly forged on the inside of the track from the second row to the lead. Gerd set in second position, and after two laps Albacete and Gerd had a narrow margin ahead of Östreich, Pulič, and Bösiger. Other drivers delayed more and more. Spectators drove their favorite in the red vehicle till the finish of the race and finally they tendered ovation for him when he passed the finish line as a winner. Naturally, Gerd won plaudits as well. No doubt, if Gerd was first before Albacete, he could wait no clapping! So, the cup mathematics fell for the benefit of the reigning champion on Saturday as plus four points.
On Sunday, David came two laps only in the morning warm-up, and had to go back to pits. He could not finish even this distance of one hundred meters or so, and had to wait for mechanics to push his truck home. The re-emergent defect of the engine was so extensive, that it was necessary to replace the whole engine assembly completely. But the new engine required a lot of demanding completion works, and David only sadly looked on his watch. Progressively he lost a chance to participate in the timed practice, qualification race, and finally in the cup race. Hoping for a start in the cup race at least from pits, he went into his overalls, but he had to watch the last struggle for cup points as a spectator only ...
David’s failure passed perhaps magically on Gerd too, who came in the timed practice fifth only. In the qualification race, after the initial hustle and bustle, he was the worse for it, and finished in eighth position. Albacete, his big rival came second, and increased his lead in the interim championship’s standings by other six points. Gerd was considerably better in the cup race, where he, from the very beginning, masterly forged to the fourth position behind Albacete, Hahn, and Altenstrasser. The before him driving Austrian had his life form, and Gerd ploughed the sand to win the podium placement. K So his point deficit behind winning Albacete increased by unpleasant ten points.
In the fall of October, Gerd will attempt to make small miracle on the famous French circuit at Le Mans. As David recognized personally, even a driving wizard can meet with bad success. The difference amounting 32 points is huge, but the final account of this year’s championship will be underlined early in the evening on Sunday, October 29. David would retain his fifth place in total after his fiasco at Jarama.
