The toughest season brought a historic result, too
27.10.2013
This year’s European Truckracing Championship is in the past now and the time has come to look back a little. What was it like for the duo of our pilots in terms of point gains, podium placing and individual success or failures?
‘Clearly, the season as a whole didn’t go well. We had a huge amount of bad luck all along. Even if we had been luckier though, the competition was incredibly strong this year. There were several trucks fighting over the front positions, yet eventually it was two drivers, Antonio Albacete and Jochen Hahn, who competed for the title. Others, including us, were only trying to catch up on them and grab the ranks below. This has been the team’s hardest season, but there were still a few moments that showed what kind of fighters we are and that we work well as a team,‘ said our team’s boss Mario Kress.
In the Championship‘s overall ranking, our pilots Adam Lacko and Markus Bösiger finished on sixth and seventh place, both making worse results than in the two previous seasons. Adam dropped from bronze position, Markus only by one place.
Ten weekend rounds had been scheduled for the racing trucks this year, one event less than in the previous year. In May it all started in Misano, Italy, and the end came, just like in the preceding year, in the midst of October at the French circuit of Le Mans. During the half-a- year-long cavalry most of the drivers competed in 48 races – 20 championship races and an equal number of handicap races, in which the fastest eight from the main race exchange positions and fight for a half of the point gains. In total, 120 podium positions were distributed among the racers, whilst our pilots occupied 13% of them, gathering 15 places altogether. Paradoxically, bronze positions were in the minority, and so when Adam or Markus went to the podium, it was always directly for gold or silver. The only bronze medal was taken by Markus. Our Swiss pilot was victorious five times in total, adding one second and one third place. Altogether, he appeared on the podium seven times. His colleague Adam jumped up the podium eight times, just the results were a little different. He won the race three times and finished second five times. In total, our pilots took one fifth of all gold medals.
During the entire season, there was not a weekend when our team would be missing from the winners‘ podium. The worst result was recorded in the penultimate round in Jarama, Spain, where Markus took only bronze. In contrast, the premiere at the French track of Navara brought one gold for each of our pilots. They managed to take a podium double twice in the season - two rankings at the same time went to our team in Nogaro and at the final weekend in Le Mans. The order was the same both times, Markus first and Adam second.
The fact that our team was affected by bad lack is proved by the number of races in which our pilots‘ results were not recorded at all. It’s hard to believe that we were missing from the results fourteen times. Adam in eight races, Markus in six. Situation turned out most critical in the third round in Nogaro, France, where both pilots lost the chance to gain points following a collision with each other. Similarly, also the first handicap race in Zolder eliminated them from the results. Consequently, after all the misfortune the question regarding their drop in the ranking is answered easily.
The Champsionship’s rules say that the best driver can collect up to 60 points in one weekend round. Yet the limit was not reached by anyone this year. The brand new champion Jochen Hahn came the closest to it though, as he gained 53 points in Most. It was only him and his greatest competitor Albacete to exceed the limit of 50 points per weekend, and they managed to do so twice. Our pilots’ point average in one racing weekend is a little over 21. On average, Adam would collect almost 23 points and Markus 20 points. The native from Čeladná enjoyed his most bountiful round in Navara, where he took 35 points. In contrast, the worst result is from Smolensk, where he gained only ten points. The pilot from the Swiss town of Lagenthal had a 13-point crisis in Nogaro and had to wait for the season’s biggest success until the very end. Eventually, he recorded 29 points in Le Mans.
However, both our pilots will be remembered by the truckracing community thanks to the two biggest accidents of the season. Adam experienced a nasty collision in Smolensk, while Markus appeared in the „collision of the year“ in Zolder. ‘It’s crazy that in both cases it was only us and our colleagues from Oxxo. Our trucks ended up terribly, they were practically scrapped, but fortunately, nothing happened to anyone. The mechanics team managed to put everything back in place and together, we stood up and continued fighting,‘ reminded us Adam, who brought a historic success to the team. As the first non-Spanish pilot he won at the popular Spanish race, leaving behind the traditional winner Antonio Albacete.
