As the end of this year's season is approaching fast our pilots have come to the eight instalment of the cup with a clear aim - to try to reduce the point-count lead of Markus Östreich! This was the last chance to defend the two titles that Gerd Körber wrestled for Buggyra in the past two years.
However, it became apparent during free practice that Östreich sensed the unique opportunity of this race and would not give up without a tough fight. He went on to prove this in the decisive timed practice race, where he was alone to conquer the limit of 1 minute 55 seconds. The second position in the first row of the starting line was secured by Ludovic, who came in only one tenth of a second behind Östreich. David was plagued by faulty brakes most of the time and was struggling over third place with Albacete. During the last stop in the boxes, the technicians at last managed to get rid of the braking problem and in the last lap David saw his time improve by half a second, which finally decided his fight with Albacete in his favour.
In the Sunday warm-up David scored the fastest time and was very content with how his truck was tuned. Nevertheless, in the qualifying race Östreich started out best, making full use of his front starting position. Both Ludovic and David tried to get into lead, but he gave them virtually no opportunity. Both have closely followed their biggest rival six laps. In the seventh lap, the indications that Östreich's vehicle is not completely in order was confirmed, because his truck suddenly slowed down. Ludovic was fast to take the first position and within a short while Östrech was also overtaken by David. Östreich soon joined the company of Albacete, who was freely circling round on account of the trouble with his turbo-charger and tried to finish the required number of laps to get at least a few important points. The first to finish was Ludovic, who came before David, Drückenmüller and surprisingly the French Monfrin in the fourth place. However, the results were not final as FIA commissioners interfered once again and gave Ludovic extra ten seconds for exceeding the speed limit. This influenced the starting set-up of the final race: 1st row David - Drückenmüller, 2nd row Ludovic - Monfrino, and 3rd row Östreich - Albacete!
The start of the Final Race came out well for David. Although he went first into the initial bend, he was pursued by Albacete and Östreich, who caused a mass collision of almost the whole starting field. David was fastest to scramble out of the squeeze. Morfino pulled out of the dust cloud with a significant time loss and only after him came Drückenmüller and Östreich. The last to be back on track was Albacete who left the race with a damaged vehicle. While the leading duo kept increasing the distance from the rest, Östreich forced himself into third position. In the end Ludovic reaped the fruits of victory, making use of David's minor mistake. It took another minute before Östreich arrived as third. Thus both of our pilot's aim of reducing Östreich's lead was fulfilled.
In the continuous ranking Östreich is in the lead, seven points ahead of Ludovic. David is currently third, loosing 16 points to the first place, but still being 20 points ahead of Albacete.
