The KTR team had a tough weekend at the German Eurospeedway/Lautsitzring where rounds nine and ten of the 2004 World Series by Nissan were held. The singleton entry of Didier André made the best of the difficult circumstances but his race and car were destroyed by a not so talented driver and even less talented marshalls.
"I cannot understand and refuse to accept that in today's professional racing world it is still possible that a lapped backmarker is allowed to hold up and even block drivers racing for position, and on top of that is not even shown a blue flag," team principal Kurt Mollekens said afterwards.
Didier André qualified 13th for the first race and tenth for the second, which under the given circumstances wasn't bad. It was the Frenchman's second race in succession he had to do without the benefit of having a teammate. "The total number of entries was up three units from last race and we're confident of having a second driver in the team at the next race," Mollekens said.
But the promise André showed in qualifying would be abruptly terminated by a driver not knowing what he was doing and marshals not doing anything at all. "Didier was ninth after a few laps but then got stuck behind Donoso, who had already been lapped. I don't know what this driver was thinking but maybe he should have a look in the mirror tomorrow morning and see whether he really has a place in a singleseater championship like the World Series by Nissan. I would advise him a career change sooner rather than later," Mollekens said.
"On top of that he starts blocking Didier when he tries to overtake him, claiming he didn't see any blue flags. Maybe his engineer should explain what mirrors are for or how the radio works. To make matters worse, the race direction said that maybe the marshals weren't aware of the fact that Donoso was lapped already and therefore didn't show him any blue flags. Which makes me wonder whose job it is to inform the marshals in the first place," Mollekens continued. Having been lapped already and now being pushed it would only be a matter of time before Donoso would run out of talent and just that happened when he spun in Turn 8. André tried to pass him but just as he passed the spinning car, Donoso let go of the brake pedal, the car shot forwards and T-boned André. Race over, André's car virtually destroyed and impossible to repair for the second race.
"Sometimes I wonder why I bother fielding a team at all, but when you then are notified that you're one of the six selected WSN-teams for the 2005 World Series by Renault, you think there's a purpose after all. Let's hope this has been our worst weekend of the year and that it can only get better from here on. I'm just sorry Didier was denied another points scoring race for reasons beyond his and our control," Mollekens concluded
