This season's fourth event, which took place at the Paul Armagnac Circuit, began as early as on Friday, when in addition to three free practices a one-hour "press day" was held, where French newspapermen rode as co-drivers of professional truckers. David caused the first great stir unwillingly. In his very first drive, an oil hose cracked and a jet of oil was spouting on the red-hot supercharger. At once, flames occurred under David's truck, but fortunately the fire was extinguished without any serious after-effects. Maybe, an unknown Frenchman sitting beside David as his co-driver could experience the only after-effect on his mental condition ...
In the Saturday's timed practice, both our drivers gained the third row on the starting grid of the qualification race, where David had somewhat more advantageous position. Shortly after the start, Gerd pulled ahead of David - and this was the only one material alteration in the qualification race ranking during eight laps in total. FIA commissioners arranged another modification of final positions. After two hours of examination of several trucks they disqualified the last year's Spanish champion Albacete, who was fourth, because the supercharger of his truck was altered in conflict with competition rules. Therefore Gerd moved up to fourth place and David to fifth place.
Gerd as well as David succeeded to start very well into the main race. However, Bösiger who slept through the start, blocked David unscrupulously several times over. At one point, David found himself outside the track and had a hard job to get back. In the first lap finish he was ninth. Gerd had a considerably better position as he was third, moreover he was pleased to hear in his intercom headphones that the leading driver Östreich had to serve a STOP and GO penalty in pits for his early start. So Gerd had an opened up to the second place behind easily first Hahn. Surprisingly, the Austrian driver Altenstrasser accompanied them on the podium. After collisions with Bösiger, David had troubles with front-axle geometry; nevertheless, he struggled on bravely through the field and in the last but one lap he got to the fifth place behind Östreich.
A prerequisite to succeed in the main race is a good result in the timed practice. On Sunday, Gerd gained a better chance for a good result, because he reached the fourth time in a twenty-minute race against time, so he ranked among the best and was in the second row on the starting grid. At the beginning, David speeded badly to reach any better time and figured at the turn of the first and second ten. At the close, he quickened his pace after all, and his seventh time was enough for the fourth line on the starting grid.
They both improved their position just after the qualification race start, where Gerd was quicker to react to green lights than Östreich beside him, and so he got to the third place just behind Hahn and Bösiger. Also David showed an excellent starting response and edged his way past Albacete and Pulič, who started from the third row, and got just behind Österich. This ranking had stabilized and it seemed that this race could end without any further changes. However at the very close, Fortune turned on back of our colors. Firstly, in the last but one lap Gerd lost one position due to his slight driving mistake. Indeed, David was much more off his luck as he suddenly veered off the track when his truck went out of control in the technically demanding passage before the last lap. "It looks like a broken cardan shaft," he reported via his intercom, and mechanics immediately went to pits to be prepared to replace the shaft with no delay after David's Buggyra would be towed to pits by a towage service. Fortunately, the interval before the cup race was long enough to repair everything needed.
And what was worse, this failure in the qualification race meant that David started into the cup race from the very last place on the starting grid. So he could not see Gerd's excellent start when he got ahead of Östreich and Bösiger to the second place just behind leading Hahn. Bösiger "annoyed" Gerd several times during the race though, but Gerd kept his optimum curve and gave the Swiss not a single opportunity to overtake him. Gerd again reached the podium placement and won his second silver laurel wreath at Nogaro as well as a multi-pack of wine bottles with local winery's compliments. David had a difficult challenge, since the narrow track and a heap of mediocre drivers before him was a headache for him. He succeeded to weave his way to the eighth place, but it was impossible to get better. Tires of his truck did not stand the hot surface of the track and so David could not stress them too much and he had to take great care of them and so he had to settle for points for his eighth place.
In the total standing, Gerd is second; he has ten points less than Hahn; David is fifth, but his loss behind Östreich is 24 points now.
