The 6th event of this year’s championship took place in Zolder, Belgium. Ergo, on the circuit, which still is, despite some modifications, technically very demanding and exacting, and also dangerous here and there. However, in the past, our drivers won many laurels – Martin Koloc was first here, Gerd Körber made a great stride to win the championship by his first victory in the 2002 season, Ludovic Faure won a golden laurel with Buggyra, and David Vršecký had several podium placements too!
Already the timed practice on Saturday indicated that even in this year we would not have to go home barehanded. Especially David flaunted, when he improved the circuit record roughly in the middle of the allowed time. Remaining minutes he contentedly circled around the track, and waited, if somebody would succeed to beat his time. It is not uninteresting that even in these “waiting” laps, David reached times, with which he could reach the pole position. Finally, Gerd almost approached the David’s record, but one way or another, Gerd’s lag behind David was unusually long: more than four tenths of a second. By all means, there was a great pleasure and satisfaction in the team, since both blue Buggyras got together in the first line of the qualification-race starting grid. We rejoiced after the race finish as well, because both our trucks saw the black-and-white checked flag as first, although the sequence of David and Gerd on the finish line was swapped compared to their start positions. The thing was that Gerd went off in a little more go-getting way than David, and used his higher speed on the outside of the track to take the lead. However, David kept a minimum lag behind Gerd, and attempted to attack on Gerd several times over. But before each bend, he had to get back behind Gerd. “I could be more faster in the first bend, and I could make it difficult for Gerd to attack on the outside of the track. However, there was no point in risking any troubles or to crash each other that both of us could fall out of the track, and gratis to give our own aces over to other drivers even before the game started,” David rated his own performance after he came back to pits. And he confirmed the fact that he was best in the final sector of the circuit: “This section requires excellent driving technique, but it is right up my street. Official timekeeping in individual sectors shows that I was clearly fastest of all mainly in this third section!“
The cup race start was exactly the same as the qualification one. David, who was in second position, pulled ahead of Gerd in the first bend on the outside of the track, and so he got the lead and even worked out a little gap before Gerd. Nothing important happened in three next laps, and drivers on first five or six places went at regular intervals. In the fourth lap, Gerd suddenly slowed down, and his truck started to zigzag on and even off the track. Summoning all his strength, he succeeded to get into pits, where his trip to gain further points ended. A glance at the truck bottom revealed that the air intake hose cracked. Gerd’s truck then became a completely uncontrollable vehicle. In the immediately following lap, one of the greatest rivals of Gerd was knocked out of the game – Jochen Hahn, Gerd’s fellow-countryman, who was third in the championship by that time. So Östreich got to the second place behind David easily, and in the same comfortable manner, Albacete got to the third place. Great duels were encountered between drivers in places ranging from fourth to seventh, and several spots of oil leaking from crashed trucks appeared on the track surface. Times were markedly lower then. Only one driver ran like the clappers – David Vršecký! He increased his lead by one to two seconds on average in each lap. It is no wonder then, he could take the liberty to slow down so that he ran by jubilating mechanics and other teammates behind the pit fence alongside the track at walking speed when he passed the finish line.
In Sunday’s timed practice, David again secured the pole position in the qualification race. And Gerd was successful as well, as he stood in the first row just behind David in second position. This time, the difference between both Buggyras was pure and simple five thousandths of a second. The Sunday’s start was similar to the Saturday’s one, as Gerd got into the lead after his attack on the outside. Unfortunately, he pulled behind him Pulič, the Croatian driver. David succeeded to beat back the attacks of other drivers so that he ran in third position. Shortly afterwards, the leading trio ran ahead of the rest of the field, and tenths by tenths of a second they increase their lead. In the middle of the race, David prepare the ground for overtaking Pulič, but in the most important time point, his motor became weaker suddenly. However, David’s lead before Albacete in fourth position was sufficient so that David could comfortingly get points for his third place. Östreich, his most serious rival came sixth, and so David detracted another three points from Östreich’s lead before him in the interim championship’s standings.
Again, the cup race was easy prey for Gerd, who won it in a start-finish manner, or expressed in the jargon of the horseracing business: “held-back”. David fell back in the first lap to the fourth place behind Pulič and Albacete, but in following seven laps David prepared to attack the Spaniard. But again, he lacked the needed power to overtake Albacete, resulting in a three-second slowdown in the eighth lap. It was fortunate that he had a great lead before Östreich in fifth position, when David even increased this lead in the last lap. Indeed, his fourth place was the worst position in both racing days, nevertheless, he won the most points of all drivers on the Belgian circuit.
After six events Gerd swung up to the second place of the interim standings, when he is now loosing only twelve points behind Albacete, who is in leading position – it was such a pity that he had a deficit in the Saturday’s cup race ... David’s point account grew substantially and he is now only seventeen points behind Östreich, who in fourth position of championship’s interim standings.
Upcoming European Cup Event: 30 September – 1 October 2006, Jarama (Spain)
