The races in Nürburgring have always been a great feast for all motor sport lovers. This year our team came to the German venue in a position of an overall leader under current ranking, and managed to come up with a big surprise for all spectators. For the first time this season, it contributed a new Freightliner into the Race Truck category, piloted by the three times European champion Gerd Körber. Perhaps this was one of the reasons behind the unusually tense atmosphere among the members of our team.
Given the exacting schedule for the weekend, practice started as early as Friday and Gerd shocked both his competitors and spectators for the second time by winning timed practice by a full two seconds! Originally, FIA Commissioners only filled the starting positions first 26 pilots who have been regularly participating in this years championship, and Gerd together with five other pilots were disqualified. After some complicated diplomacy, Gerd received a type of "wild card" under the condition that he will start from the last position. Who could refuse an offer like that? Meanwhile, the Super Race Truck class finished with its own free practice run, where Ludovic scored two victories, while David reaped success in the first one, finishing second just before Albacete's Buggyra.
On Saturday Gerd had perhaps his first experience of having to fight his way through a dense thicket of weaker and less experienced pilots. Despite the challenge, he progressed into tenth position by the middle of the race. Unfortunately his drive forward was hampered by a failure of the engine cooling system, which eventually couldn't withstand the pressure and Gerd had to pull off the track before the last turn. Thus the hopeful start of the weekend for the new Freightliner was dashed, despite the tremendous effort of the technicians, who tried the best they could. Timed practice of the Super Trucks was marred by a rain shower, during which several pilots had accidents. David was among them. He suffered a frontal collision into the barrier, but fortunately, only plastic parts of the car were damaged. The technicians used a twenty-minute break in the race (due to an accident of the French pilot Patalacci) to check David's car. Everything was in good order, and David soon proved this in practice by overtaking Östreich and thus getting into third place just behind the Buggyras of Albacete and Ludovic. In the last minutes of the prescribed time, Östreich tried to forge ahead, but another rain-shower prevented him from improving his time.
It was pleasing to see three Buggyras in leading positions of the eleven starting positions of the qualifying race. Pity that David was unable to maintain his place after first few rounds. He dropped into fourth place behind Östreich, which ended up as being the only difference from timed practice, though around the middle of the race, Östreich attacked Ludovic and they changed places twice.
Soon after the start of the final race, the order stabilised in line with the starting position. Albacete went into lead and Östreich was pressing hard on Ludovic, who was driving in second place. David in the fourth position systematically kept repelling Drückenmüller. As it turned out later, David was having trouble for the whole duration of the race with his right front wheel, which would often block nastily. David thus focused solely on defending his position. In the tenth of the fourteen laps, Ludovic came close to the Spaniard, and in the last bend of the 12th lap attacked his position. After they collided with each other, Östreich easily slipped into first place and maintained it until the end. Ludovic came second and Albacete third. David salvaged a fourth place despite his technical problems. It is worth noting the races were watched by over 173.000 spectators!
| Home | Dakar | News | Race EC | Pilots & Team | TR Magazine | Partners | Contact | Eshop |
| © Buggyra 2011 | Všechna práva vyhrazena | International Racing System
