Bird’s Motorsport -
Levett On The Charge In Czech Republic
The seventh round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship produced non-stop action and plenty controversial driving from some experienced drivers - but Chris Levett was on top form running near the front of the field in all four races at Most.
With glorious summer sunshine and a huge crowd of 57,000, all eyes were on the local hero David Vrsecky as he headed the field from the start of practice on Saturday. The Czech driver topped the timesheets – but only by 0.248s. over Jochen Hahn (MAN) with Albacete 0.438s. slower. Markus Bösiger (Freightliner) and Chris Levett in the Birds MAN completed the top five on the starting grid. Chris’ best qualifying lap was 2m.03.052s. (Average speed 123.431 km/h) – comfortably quicker than the MAN of sixth fastest Balazs Szobi.
Race one saw an explosive start to the weekend – with the yellow MAN’s of Allgauer and Lvov colliding as the lights turned green. The Russian’s truck span wildly across the track – sending Allgauer smashing into the unfortunate Frankie Vojtisek (Renault) who was forced to retire before the first corner.
Levett steered clear of all the trouble and emerged in fifth place - with Vrsecky fending off the challenge of Hahn with Albacete in close company. This trio held their ground – but on the very last lap Hahn suffered a rear tyre blow-out and was forced to concede positions to Albacete, Bösiger and Levett…promoting Chris to a fine fourth at the flag.
Race two proved relatively trouble-free in the early laps – despite plenty of fierce overtaking moves as the ‘reverse grid’ formula had been applied for the top 8.
Levett was slightly delayed at the rolling start and ended lap one in 7th position – but he was soon up to full speed and in the race overhauled fellow MAN drivers Szobi and Oliver to move up to 5th ‘on the road’ – hard on the heels on Freightliner driver Markus Bösiger - by the finish.
Hahn looked secure at the front – with Vrsecky struggling as his Freightliner started to chew up its rear tyres, allowing Albacete to close right up in the closing stages of the race. On the final lap the Albacete saw a passing opportunity as the slowing Czech braked early for a fast right turn just three corners from the flag. The Spanish driver dived inside but Vrsecky defended his place and inevitably there was an exchange of paint as the duo ran door-to-door over the kerbs, Vrsecky ending up running through the gravel trap – leaving Albacete to cross the finish line 2.2 second ahead and – apparently runner-up in the race….behind ‘winner’ Hahn and with Vrsecky in third.
However… off-track activities by scrutineers and race stewards produced a very different official race result; Hahn’s rear tyres were declared illegal – therefore he was excluded. Then Albacete received a 2-second time penalty for aggressive driving – reversing his advantage over Vrsecky…and thereby handing the Czech driver the win.
Bösiger held off Levett by under half a second to leave the British driver 4th once again in the official results.
Sunday’s practice saw Levett and the Bird’s MAN really flying high once again; improving on his Saturday qualifying time Chris clocked a best lap of 2m.02.960s (123.523km/h) – just 0.451s. off the ‘pole’ time set by Albacete. With the top six covered by less than half a second some close racing was to be expected!
Race 3 produced another closely contested chase to the podium – but Albacete used his starting slot to good effect, leading from start-to-finish – finally finishing 4.254 s. clear. Hahn took the runner-up spot but had his mirrors full of Vrsecky’s Freightliner – just 0.533s splitting the pair after 11 laps.
Bösiger was running strongly to claim 4th with Levett taking another good result in fifth – well clear of Allgauer.
The final race of the weekend certainly gave the large crowd something to talk about for the rest of the coming week…
Levett made a great getaway from the second row of the grid to charge into the first turn alongside race leader Oliver. But as the two British drivers braked for the chicane Allgauer’s yellow MAN squeezed between them, making it three abreast.
Chris – on the outside line - had to make a split decision; either turn in and smash into Allgauer or take to the dirt on the outside of the track. He wisely took the latter course of action – and although he had to drive through the gravel bed. Losing considerable time he still emerged on the track in 5th place.
Meanwhile there was chaos behind as a number of trucks made contact – Bösiger spinning and Vojtisek being smashed into by Blaise. Several drivers went ‘off-road’ to avoid contact – bringing lots of stones on to the track…and a number of others actually had to brake fiercely to a temporary halt!
From all this confusion Stuart Oliver (MAN) emerged at the front – but was soon overhauled by Vrsecky (who went on to win). Allgauer – who had created much of the trouble, successfully held on to 2nd place for three laps – but was finally deposed by Albacete…who chased Vrsecky home in a strong second.
Allgauer then made a very strong defence of third place – but finally he was ‘displaced’ by Hahn… and as the Austrian ran wide he was also passed by Levett, Oliver and Janiec. For his efforts Hahn then received a ‘Drive-Through’ Penalty…which left him rejoining down in 9th position!
That left Vrsecky to take a popular ‘home’ win with Albacete just 2.018s. behind in the runner-up spot.
Levett had a very strong drive to claim the final podium spot went to Chris Levett– bringing his points tally for the weekend up to a very respectable 33 - the Bird’s MAN driver thereby moving up to 5th overall in the points standings.
With Chris collecting the impressive trophy for third place the team had plenty of reason to celebrate on Sunday evening – especially as it was also the birthday of chief mechanic Luke Mason.
But there is little time to relax at this crucial point of the season when the race schedule is so packed. The Bird’s Motorsport team will be back in action again when the FIA European Truck Racing Championship re-commences on September 12/13 at Circuit Zolder in Belgium – followed by Le Mans just one week later!
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