Buggyra won four of its titles at Jarama
After the races at Most, Nogaro and Zolder, the fastest European truck racers are heading to Jarama. Including Adam Lacko – Téo Calvet – Aliyyah Koloc. And Buggyrahas some great memories from there, as the team won four out of its six titles there.
2007: Markus Bösiger
The Swiss acquisition has proven itself since the first race of the season. He was going into the final race of the season at Jarama with a huge 30-point lead. Just a day before the final championship race, Markus was 10 points away from the championship. However, then came a totally unexpected double retirement and the championship title went to Antonio Albacete. But, as the Spanish driver was celebrating in front of 100,000 fans, the Buggyra team made an official protest. “Antonio was starting behind me and he just went on to hit me, like nothing. Maybe he thought that he could get away with it at his home race. And the MAN was also a factor as they had the most trucks on the grid, so they counted on the drivers sticking together. But then Levett, Körber, Konovalov and others started to bring videos to the official, where they could see how it really was. So, the FIA officials were thinking about the situation and decided to give Antonio the smallest penalty possible – a 5-sec time penalty. But Gerd finished only two seconds behind Antonio and as the difference between 2nd and 3rd places were three points, Markus won the title by a single point. The following night wasn’t short at all!“ says David Vršecký.
2008: David Vršecký
David took the championship lead right after the opening round at Barcelona and he remained on the top of the standings until the last race at Jarama. He arrived in Spain with an 18-point lead to his teammate Markus Bösiger. For the first time in history, two teammates were fighting for the championship title. “Our deal was that whoever gets it, is the champion, a fair fight. But then Markus tried something in a qualifying. I remember kicking into a door after that. But it worked, the Saturday was fine, Sunday’s practice sessions and qualifying as well. I was going into the final race knowing that if I finish in the TOP 6, I’ll win the championship. In the end, I finished 2nd. All the people surrounded me in the pits and I didn’t have much idea of what was going on,“ says David.
2009: David Vršecký
It was not a good start of the season for the reigning champion, as he was losing 35 points to Antonio Albacete. But he caught up with the Spaniard at Zolder. Then, David excelled at Le Mans circuit and he had a 10-point lead ahead of Jarama. “We knew what the officials were capable of, so we pushed since the practice sessions. Markus set the fastest time, I was 2nd and Antonio 3rd. He was on the grid right behind Markus. Our strategy was that the rules stated only the maximum speed during the rolling start, not the minimum. So Markus was leading the field going just 30 kph or something. Then the red lights turned off and I went for it. Antonio couldn’t hold his nerves and took Markus out from behind. Both were out and I got a radio message to just calmly finish. I had no problems winning the race and defending the championship title. It was a funny race,” laughs now David Vršecký.
2017: Adam Lacko
Adam arrived at Jarama with a 38-point lead over the reigning championship Jochen Hahn. But as both drivers had a very similar performance, it was clear that he could lose the championship title only because of technical problems. “It started well, but then the engine started to cook. I had to put all my efforts into a single solid lap.” And the team decided already during the qualifying to change the engine. “Then the battle against the time began. If I didn’t start the race and Jochen won, I would have lost 20 points. And it also meant starting from the back, and it’s difficult to overtake at Jarama. So, that could have been a drama. We knew it was about minutes and the guys were working like crazy, their traditional concert. Even we were on the grid, there was still some work on setting up the engine. During the race, I got to 2nd place behind Antonio Albacete and I knew that’s good enough. Then, I was just counting metres,” remembers Adam.
