The Nogaro circuit is not exactly a favourite. The track is narrow, technically very demanding, and without adequate safe escape zones in quite a few places. However, last year it saw David's first triumph in the royal division of supertrucks, as he fought his way onto the podium for the first time.
He also wanted a success this year, and he was proving it by increasingly faster times in practice sessions, but these were enough only for the fourth place. The first one usually belonged to Gerd, closely shadowed by Antonio Albacete in his red Buggyra. The third free practice saw a surprise represented by young Adam Lacko and his Tatra, who got sandwiched between Gerd and Antonio, finishing second. The decisive measured practice session started in the afternoon, when the thermometer climbed to nearly 40 degrees Centigrade in the shadow. Gerd did not leave anyone doubting as to who was the champion, and scored the fastest time of the day in the very first measured lap, closely above 1:54. Satisfied with his achievement, he could thus make a pit stop, followed by David shortly afterwards. David was one second behind Gerd, but still put him in the second place. However, in less than half an hour, both Antonio and later the German driver Östreich overtook David by hundredths of a second. David was thus forced to head for the circuit again. One lap was all it took for him to secure the second place on the roster, beside Gerd. He improved jis time by more than six tenths of a second! Antonio finished fourth, just behind Östreich.
Gerd's start in the qualification race was excellent. He took the leading position, which he comfortably held until the end of the race in the ninth lap. However, David had a sort of a sleepy start, initially dropping to the fourth place behind Östreich and Lacko. He succeeded in overtaking Lacko as early as in the first lap, and Antonio appeared in the fourth place shortly thereafter. The remaining laps did nothing else to the rankings, and the atmosphere in the team was that of overall satisfaction. Only Martin Koloc, the team boss, was not mincing words when referring to David's start...
An old adage says that one should learn from lessons, and David proved it true right in the beginning of the cup race. As soon as the green light appeared, he sneaked his way beside Östreich and occupied the second position behind Gerd. Östreich did not want to put up with the situation, and kept attacking David. However, the latter's performance was a textbook one, and he started putting some distance between himself and Östreich. However, he was running out of brake cooling water two laps short of the finishing line, and he had to slow down a bit. Östreich felt his last chance and began closing in on David. But David stuck to his second place, and was thus able to cheer the first-ever double victory of our team, standing on the podium with Gerd. In the last lap, Antonio overtook valiantly fighting Lacko, whose inside front wheel was flat, finishing fifth.
In the overall standings, Gerd is now second, losing just one point to Östreich, David has moved to the third place, with a lead of two points over Antonio.
