On Saturday the programme of Super Race Trucks division included first of all two free practices and then time practice, which results decided on the positions on the starting grid for qualifying race on Sunday. During the first practice our pilot Gerd Körber was very successful on wet track and was keeping rank two or three. Within last few seconds of the time limit, however, he was overtaken by Faure from France and finished on fourth place. The results of the group of first five pilots were very close to each other - their times were less than a second apart. After the lunch break there was second free practice where Gerd had to be satisfied with sixth place. The results of leading pilots were again very close, although not that important for the course of main race of the weekend. The practices serve especially for testing and collection of data for setting the truck for the decisive time practice. The pilots were entering this practice with a delay of more than hour, because the programme of different races that took place in between was delayed as well. Due to numerous collisions it was necessary to clear the track quite frequently and to tow away crashed trucks. The rain was ever heavier and there was more and more water on the track and therefore it was impossible for Gerd to improve the time he had made during the first minutes of the practice. According to unofficial results he finished seventh, which means fourth row at the start to the qualifying race on Sunday. The fastest in the practice was Bösiger from Switzerland ahead of Luostarinen from Finland and Oestreich from Germany. All data collected during the day will be analysed thoroughly once more in the evening. Based on their analysis the head of the team Martin Koloc will decide together with the engineers on the settings of Buggyra for the qualifying race and cup race on Sunday.
There was no rain any more in Most on Sunday and therefore the times in the warm-up in the morning got considerably faster. In our division Bösiger from Switzerland was again the fastest one as it was already the case in time practice of Saturday. Gerd also speeded up a lot, but all efforts led to seventh place only. The loss to Bösiger was however only 1.5 second. This result indicated that Gerd could compete with established MAN trucks on dry track as well, although this is not so much of his strength. The loss to the group of Mercedeses was about half a second. This was also a reason why the guests filling Buggyra Hospitality Unit started to look forward more and more to both final races.
The first one - qualifying race - started with Gerd's excellent start. Shortly after the green lights went on he got to place six and started to chase the red Mercedes of Faure from France. However, while entering the fourth lap white smoke emerged behind the cockpit and Gerd had to retreat due to turbocharger failure. Thus the had to start into the cup race from twelfth position. This time his start was even faster than in the qualifying race and in the beginning of second lap he was already ranking sixth. His pursuit was then ended in the middle of the race. This time he was betrayed by the failure of cooling system.
The next race is due in two weeks (15 -16 September) in Zolder in Belgium.
