Buggyras Confirmed Famous Season Entry
Just the drivers of the blue Buggyras climbed the winners´ rostrum at the second event of the European Truck Racing Championship in Misano, Italy. David Vršecký and Markus Bösiger took half of the top honours each. In the overall ranking they occupy the top two positions and the team competition as well of course.
Like in Barcelona David won both opening free time practices, Markus ending third both times. They probably came to like this ranking for also in the result table of the time practice David ranked first and Markus third. Between the two Buggyras just the greatest rival of our two drivers, the Spanish Albacete, managed to squeeze in. David was not too pleased with his field position this time. “Here the field position I got is complete nonsense, for I will have to enter the first right turn from the outside. What is good for motorbikes does not necessarily need to be good for trucks,“ lamented the current leader of the championship.
His words came true at the very beginning of the qualifying race. Even though he tried to get all horses out of his truck, he had no chance to overtake Albacete by the whole truck length to be able to get to the inside of the track. Markus had similar worries, being passed under by Hahn in the first curve. Hahn ´s MAN, however, was unable to keep the third position for long and Markus returned to his original position still in the course of the first round. In the middle of the race, together consisting of eight rounds, the leading trio developed a considerable advantage over the rest of the European field and flew to the finish close to one another. “There was no point in trying to overtake Antonio. The result would have been a single scope point more and I had the starting advantage for the cup race as a result,“ commented the satisfied David on his result.
And he was absolutely right. He entered the initial curve on the inside as the leader and Albacete had to be content with the second position. Markus easily took the third position. And like in the previous ride the leading trio began to move away from the rest of the field. The main race was twelve rounds long and everybody could clearly see that David might only be deprived of another triumph by a technical fault or a gross mistake. Luckily neither happened. On the contrary, David even moved away from his two rivals as well and reached the finish about ten seconds ahead of them. Albacete has to drive very carefully for Markus kept watching him closely and driving at his heels all the time. However, he did not make a mistake and therefore the obtrusive champion of last season had no chance to overtake the previous season ´s champion. However, both of them were slowed down by the duel. The sovereign David, in addition, broke the track record in the ninth round. “My mechanics and engineers had done a good job, my truck worked as well as in Barcelona on Sunday, in short fantastically! I am obviously very pleased with my victory. It was fifteenth victory in my racing career and eleventh race truck victory. I would like to round one or both of these numbers,“ added the pilot of Roudnice nad Labem with a smile.
Curious was the very view of the starting field of the cup race. The first six rows were only occupied by David and Albacete (first row), Markus (second row) and Hahn (third row). After that there were just three more trucks from the seventh row on. The others had to start from boxes for they did not come in time from the pits and the strict Italian commissioners did not let them on the track. This obviously does not diminish the performance of the best ones. The top drivers, on the contrary, soon had to overtake the outsiders a whole round behind.
On Sunday our two drivers swapped the roles. Markus won the time practice and David ranked third, with Albacete again in between them. After that the scenario resembled Saturday. After the start of the qualifying race the first driver to be seen was Albacete followed by Markus and David, who was overtaken by Hahn in the very first curve. But Markus showed the Spanish predator this time who was the current champion. Before Albacete managed to enjoy his top position for a whole, the blue Buggyra took the lead. David ´s progress to the third position was much more complicated. In the middle of the race, when chasing Hahn, he lightly braked through a curve and lost his close contact to the German. He soon corrected his mistake and overtook Hahn in the last but one round. The raking in the finish was therefore the same as in the time practice and everybody was waiting with excitement for the start of the last event of the second racing weekend.
Markus started like an arrow and showed that even an unpleasant starting handicap can easily be overtaken. David too did not give Hahn a chance to overtake and ranked after Albacete. Markus probably was not interested in any drama. In the course of another two or three rounds he departed from the rest of the field an after that could only see outsiders one round behind in front of him. David started with attacks on the Spanish driver ´s second position, but soon he had to slow down a little, for the road began to be slippery. More complications came at the very end of the race, when David lost his position on the winners´ rostrum half a round before the finish. His position at the rostrum was taken by the French Belloc. “What can you do, the rostrum was quite clearly prepared for me too. But Albacete began to splash oil and soon I could not even see whether I was still on the track or not. After that I scored a hit from Belloc and suddenly dropped to the fourth position. The track commissioners did not notice anything and therefore we could not even file a protest,“ said David with disappointment after the race.
However, in the overall ranking David is still six points ahead of Markus, the third Albacete losing the whole twelve more points behind the second position. The development of the team competition has begun to remind of last season, when Buggyra marched with quick step towards the title.
