A repetition of the triumph in Portugal should have been the best present for Gerd's 40th birthday on Saturday. Having arrived to Misano, however, he as well as the others had no idea that the fate of the second event of the European Cup was very in fact very uncertain. During the practices it came out that the speed control through GPS, which replaced tachographs, was failing. The truth was revealed by FIA delegates at the special meeting with pilots and journalists. Nearby NATO base did not permit signal transmission via satellites! Therefore FIA proposed that the speed would be controlled by regular police radars and the event would be recognized, if all pilots would agree and sign the respective declaration. All of them did so.
Gerd was quite successful in the practice and was always ranking among the fastest. However, ™streich after his comeback considerably improved the performance and won the important timed practice. It was a dramatic period of 40 minutes, because the top ranking was changed several times. The differences among the leading pilots, including Antonio Albacete from Spain and our David, were minimal. David as the fourth one lost less than one second behind ™streich. After all, Buggyra had all three trucks in first two rows of the starting grid, which indeed made an excellent presentation. Young Tatra pilot Adam Lacko was also successful among the nine trucks of the king size category. Till the last moment he was struggling with very experienced Luostarinen from Finland to get the fifth place.
Sunday morning started with the traditional rush of Italian spectators, who were enjoying the trio of shining Buggyras just behind the paddock gate. The expected attack to get the first place was nevertheless unsuccessful. Gerd missed the start and began lagging behind among the outsiders. On the contrary, David started very well, occupied the third place and defended it till finish behind ™streich and Albacete. Although Gerd got to the fourth place already during the second lap, David did not allow him to improve more. In the finish there was a difference of a single second between them. Final race was not very dramatic either. This time Gerd was alert and started better than David. Unfortunately ™streich, who was the first, and Albacete, the second, were still better. So for his birthday he had to be content with the third place "only". In total ranking he is second having four points less than his fellow countryman. David comfortably got to place four in the race. After Misano he is likewise the fourth in total ranking, between Albacete and Luostarinen.
