This year’s championship got into its second half and so the long awaited and nevertheless “dread” race came. At the home circuit in the City of Most, our drivers are always wishing to present themselves to their best advantage, but not each time they succeeded to do so. And as it turned out in distant as well as recent history, our destiny is frequently decided by big shots at a table and not at a circuit ...
The Spanish champion Albacete and the German Östreich succeeded best in the Saturday’s timed practice. David and Gerd reached the second row on the qualification race starting-grid. In traditional hustles just after start, Gerd sustained a hard blow from behind and his Buggyra rammed directly against David. Unfortunately it was so disastrous that the steering of David’s truck suffered a serious damage. David tried to hold on to a track, but after two laps he preferred to lay his truck up. “I wanted to reach the finish line, but it was impossible. On and off I could not take a turning, so I had to scratch from the race. I didn’t mean to risk to damage my truck much more,” regretted David after he was towed to pits. Remaining laps were passed without any dramatic moments and standings changed on no-points places only. Indeed, Gerd tried to attack third Pulič make in the last lap but one, but Croat’s Mercedes had enough power to accelerate and Pulič refused to give up a symbolic podium placement.
David had to perform a far from easy task in the Cup Race, where he started as nineteenth. The hardest part of this task he made already in the very first lap, when he overtook a group of ten weaker drivers. In the second lap he was eighth, and immediately in the next lap he was seventh. In the middle of the race he caught up with a strong trio, which included beside Gerd also Bösiger and Vojtíšek. David felt that his Buggyra was faster, and he started to attack in the eighth lap. However, there was a little space on the track and David crashed into Vojtíšek unwillingly. Moreover, remaining two trucks got mixed in this collision. However in a while, David appeared at the head of this group and so he was in fourth place of interim standings. He tried to draw close to the leading trio, but they had a lead of several seconds, which could not be decreased. This race ended unhappily for Gerd, who was hors de combat with a punctured tire only three laps before the end of the Cup Race. David’s advancement by fifteen places was remarkable, but this displeased FIA commissioners contrary to blustering and applauding spectators. Some of commissioners even designated David’s driving style as dangerous, outvoted their colleagues, who proposed a half-minute penalty, and enforced David’s disqualification from the race. The Most’s syndrome functioned again!
In the Sunday’s timed practice, David showed off his second time, when he lagged by 14 hundredths of a second behind fastest again Albacete. Gerd was less successful, who reached the seventh place on the qualification starting-grid. This time, everything went good without any serious crashes, and shortly after start drivers ranged themselves strictly according to practice standings. In the middle of this race, David reached the best time per one lap, and he drew close behind Albacete. But David was not enough fast to get into a lead; the Spaniard would have had to make a severe mistake. Moreover, they had a lead of several seconds over the remaining field. David also reported via his walkie-talkie to drive for safety and to avoid any unnecessary risk of losing an advantageous position in the main Cup Race. Even Gerd reached no change in his placement compared to the start standings, and so he got points for his seventh place.
The Cup Race had almost the same progress as the qualification. Albacete took the lead again, and only David was able to cope with his pace. In few final laps David tried again to hang on to the ace of the Most event, but even this time he did not succeeded to overtake the Spaniard. Gerd improved his standing, when he occupied the sixth position immediately after start, and in the final lap he overtook Pulič in fifth place.
In the cup interim standings, Gerd fell down to the third place behind Hahn and Albacete, David keeps his fifth place behind Östreich.
