Bird’s Motorsport -
Bird's boys on good form in Barcelona
The Circuit de Catalunya in Spain was the fifth of the ten events in the 2009 FIA European Truck Racing Championship – and 17,000 heavy metal race fans attended the Barcelona event this weekend (July 4/5).
For Chris Levett the Spanish event proved to be a great success – the British driver taking the Bird’s MAN to four strong finishes – netting a total of 23 points and moving him to 6th overall in the championship standings.
Truck racing had never visited the Barcelona event in July – and the new summer date produced extremely hot weather with the temperature regularly over 35C. (On-track temperature on Sunday actually peaked at 51.5C).
Not surprisingly, both men and machinery were operating under pressure – and while Levett kept a cool head some rival competitors were definitely getting ‘overheated’ in the adverse conditions.
On Saturday Chris was struggling to get the right ‘set-up’ during the practice session – and with a full field of 30 trucks (including some very slow locals!) it proved difficult to get a clean ‘flying lap’. His best time was 1m.32.039s. (average speed 119.3km/h) – which placed him 11th on the starting grid for race one.
As usual, the opening lap proved to be full of incidents – but Chris kept clear of trouble – steered a clear path and managed to gain four places before the finish, crossing the line in 8th position.
By the start of race two the blazing mid-afternoon sun had sent track temperatures soaring….and clearly some competitors were boiling their brains inside heir steaming cabins!
Levett was again performing well – thanks to the ‘Reverse Grid’ for the top 8 finishers in the opening race he started from the front – and held his position at the start and for the opening four laps.
The local ‘hero’ Antonio Albacete had been fighting his way through the pack and soon closed in on the blue Bird’s machine – the Spaniard finally going ahead around one third race distance.
Levett then had his mirrors full as the hard-charging duo of Hahn (MAN) and Vrsecky (Freightliner) closed in – and eventually moved ahead to grab the remaining podium spots. Nevertheless Chris was still in close company with the reigning European Champion – following Vrsecky across the line less than 6 seconds down after 15 laps to hold on to 4th position, while fending off the close attentions of the other Freightliner, piloted by Markus Bösiger. The Swiss driver was just 0.804s down at the line!
With Dominique Lacheze bringing the ‘sister’ truck from the Bird’s/Bernau team home in a strong 10th place the newly-formed team had already achieved a podium placing in the FIA Teams’ Championship – and it was Richard Levett who proudly stepped up to collect the 3rd place trophy.
Another hot and sunny Sunday morning saw the truck racers back in action in the second timed practice session to decide grid positions for Championship race 3.
Levett was clearly on the ball – and improved over his previous day’s best time by an impressive 1.2 seconds. His best lap of 1m.30.804s was less than a second off the ‘pole’ time of Albacete and secured Chris 4th place on the grid.
Albacete stormed away in Championship race 3 – with high-flying Hahn in hot pursuit while the remainder of the field (led by Levett) was backed up behind Allgauer who was defending his 3rd place strongly.
After 3 laps Hahn made a decisive move and moved ahead of the Spanish driver – and charged on to take the victory while Albacete had his hands full holding off Vrsecky.
Allgauer’s extremely ‘defensive’ driving tactics proved effective as he held on for 4th – but the Austrian had dropped over 8.5 seconds behind the leading trio.
A frustrated Levett had tried all possible ways to cleanly pass Allgauer – but without any luck and while taking a wider line had left an opportunity for Bosiger to nip inside and snatch 5th.
Levett again collected valuable points coming safely home in sixth spot – over 6 seconds clear of the Renault duo of Vojtisek and Altenstrasser.
With the two Frankie Racing Team Renaults heading the field away for Race 4 perhaps some were expecting an end to the MAN / Buggyra stranglehold on the victory podium. But the final result was somewhat different…
Altenstrasser held the early advantage with but Bosiger was alongside into the first corner. The Swiss driver then collided with a tyre stack exiting turn one – and with the bonnet of his Freightliner blocking his forward vision was forced to stop trackside.
That left Altenstrasser in front with his team-mate Vojtisek in close company and Levett following in third with Vrsecky putting on the pressure. But remarkably, the second Freightliner – in the hands of Bosiger – was back on the track within one lap – and appeared in front of the race leaders, resulting in complete chaos!
As Altenstrasser attempted to pass the Swiss driver (who was now a lap behind!) he made heavy contact with his Renault team-mate…. resulting in Vojtisek’s truck becoming airborne as it smashed through a tyre corner marker. Both Renault’s were badly damaged and forced to retire mid- race. Along with all the chasing pack Levett was of course delayed by all this ‘action’.
Meanwhile, with his rivals suitably delayed Vrsecky took the chequered flag a comfortable 5.832 seconds ahead of Albacete. The Spanish star was closely followed home by Hahn while Levett continued his string of good results with a strong fourth. The Bird’s truck was nearly 11 seconds clear of the next finisher, Szoby (MAN). Dominique Lacheze – in the second of the Bird’s/Bernau team MAN’s completed the top six… again putting the Birds/Bernau Team into a top three slot.
Following some discussions with Race Officials Bosiger was excluded from the results (for allegedly ignoring blue flags)… and that promoted the Birds/Bernau team to 2nd in the Teams’ Championship – ahead of the Buggyra crew.
The next event on the FIA calendars the ADAC Truck GP at Nurburgring on July 24/25/26. The German event (always a highlight of the international racing season) is sure to be a busy one for the Bird’s boys as Levett will be competing in both the FIA Championship events and the supporting Delphi BTRA British Championship races.
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