MATEJOVSKY 9th Overall in Austria, runner up in his class

and still leads the B-class championship Race Report, A1-Ring Sunday, June 10th 2001 by www.truckrace.net Photo shows Matejovsky’s teammate, Fritz Kreuzpointer and his MAN. Kreuzpointer came second overall in Austria and leads the championship(A-class) while Matejovsky leads the B-class! For the Cup Race the weather was once again overcast, but dry. Mirroring the events in the Qualification Race, Antonio Albacete (MAN) managed to improve his standings by one position. This time he chose the more difficult approach and passed Harri Luostarinen (CAT) o the outside to claim third place. Steve Parish (MB) overtook Markus Oestreich for fifth place. Of all the drivers Gerd Körber (Buggyra) lost the most ground: tenth place and exciting battles for position followed. The German launched one unsuccessful attack after the next on Noel Crozier (MAN). At this point the Frenchman led the B-Class drivers, after leaving Stan Matejowsky behind. Körber was then forced to give up racing in lap 11, due to a tyre puncture. From lap 4 on the leading MAN racers – Bösiger in front, Fritz K. second and Albacete following closely – managed to pull away from the field. Only the flying Finn and his English CAT managed to keep up, however without posing a threat. Then the three MB-pilots followed: MAN-CAT-MB: that was the order that remained for the rest of the race and it also seems to represent the abilities of the various brands at this point in the season. Lap after lap, Markus Oestreich closed in on Steve Parrish, before he finally pulled past in the Castrol-Turn on his 14th lap, earning himself fifth place. However, after the race he received a 30 second penalty for a jump start, which set him back to seventh place in the rankings. Markus Bösiger kept his calm and easily completed his second start-finish victory of the day. With his outstanding performance he was rewarded 30 points in the overall ranking. Fritz K. in second place had to fight hard for his 15 points. Handicapped by a hand injury he has been suffering from since Misano and by technical difficulties with his shock absorbers, he maintained second place and stayed ahead in the overall ranking. It is merely a short lead of six points over Albacete, who came in third, and Bösiger trailing by another ten points. The winner of the B-Class rating was Noel Crozier (MAN), followed by Stan Matejowsky (Tatra) and Roland Rehberger (MB). Czech driver Matejowsky remains in the lead in the overall addition.