T Sport Bernau team taste success on home ground
Antonio Albacete on top form at his home circuit Jarama!
By Melanie Derflinger – T Sport Bernau team
Last weekend the T Sport Bernau team were excited to compete at Antonio´s home race at Circuito del Jarama near Madrid, Spain. Once again, we had a very successful weekend with some great racing results, made even better being surrounded by family, fans and our team partners!
The team travelled straight from Le Mans to Madrid and after an afternoon enjoying Madrid city centre it was time to get setup in the paddock on Thursday.
With no on track action on Friday, we had some time to invite the local staff from Piedrafita (the company that helps us looking after the MAN race engine) and gave them a technical tour around our race truck followed by a relaxed aperitive in our team hospitality area.
The race programme officially began on Saturday morning. The sun was out and the weather seemed perfect, but even though it is October the temperatures were a little too high for perfect racing conditions. Some teams really struggled, but here at T Sport Bernau we still managed to find a pretty good setup enabling Antonio to qualify 5th for the first race.
Closely watched by all his fans, Antonio wanted to impress and he did not disappoint. Very quickly he overtook one truck at the start of the race and then started chasing Jochen Hahn. After a couple of laps, he made his move and was on his way to overtake when he was informed that he was in an area where overtaking was not allowed due to yellow flag conditions. Antonio immediately braked to avoid a penalty and let Jochen move on. Unfortunately, this caused the gap to widen but Antonio drove a fantastic race, holding up the current championship contender Norbert Kiss.
Race 2 was even more entertaining with Antonio starting from the third row of the grid. He managed to quickly move up two positions during the race, ultimately bringing our T Sport Bernau truck across the finish line in a fantastic 3rd place, securing his first podium of the weekend!
However, there was no time to get too comfortable as the weather for Sunday changed completely. From the extreme high temperatures of Saturday overnight the weather turned to a lot of rain, wind and much cooler temperatures.
The guys discussed until late into the night about the setup of the truck for the following day. The morning came around and we went into the qualifying with a good feeling. The hard work of the previous night paid off and we were all over the moon when we saw Antonio qualify in 2nd place on the wet track!
Race 3 had to be delayed by quite a long time due to some heavy rain showers mixed with some diesel spillage from the national racing series that raced in the support programme.
The conditions were extremely difficult, but the teams and the organisers didn’t want to disappoint the thousands of fans that had braved the weather to come and see us race. With extreme caution and under yellow flag conditions (no overtaking) the race got underway. For the spectators it might looked like Antonio’s position was already safe at this point, but once the green flag came out and the race was officially started, it rained heavily and it was a challenge to keep the truck on track.
A task that Antonio managed like the professional racing driver that he is, defending his position and finishing the race in a fantastic 2nd place, another podium!
By the time we got to the final race of the weekend, the track had dried up and racing without any restrictions was again possible. The reverse grid rule meant we had to start from the middle of the pack which guaranteed a great, action-packed finish to the weekend for our fans and guests that we had welcomed into the paddock from our partners, BPW Trapaco and MBHA.
Antonio gave it his very best in a very close battle and finished in a respectful 7th place.
To please the crowds and thank his fans Antonio finished the cool down lap at his home circuit with some entertaining doughnuts on the track.
The team will stay in the paddock at Jarama to service the race truck and pack everything away. On Wednesday and Thursday, the team then plans to visit our partner MBHA and ZIUR, the manufacturer of our hybrid racing leaf springs near Valencia. Afterwards we will travel though Spain, France and into Italy for the final round of the 2021 FIA ETRC that will take at Misano World Circuit near Rimini on the 16th and 17th of October.
With the points collected Antonio Albacete is in a fairly strong 4th place in the overall driver standings. Our team together with the team of Norbert Kiss are also pleased to officially announce that we were awarded 1st place in the 2021 team championship! An achievement we are very proud of and are looking forward to celebrating!
