Dilemma with the Points
18. June 2007At present we’ve got some rather different point rankings not only for the pilots’ ranking but for the team ranking, as well, in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship.
Actually, this dilemma started last year already in the penultimate round in Jarama when Chris Levett was the first race-by-race pilot getting in the points. The young Brit could keep these points, although everybody would have thought that only registered FIA pilots could get points, but no guest drivers – because that’s what race-by-race pilots are in fact. But that happened towards the end of the season, and those points did not really influence the overall ranking. But there was already some ambiguous situation before the race in Jarama, namely in Zolder, where Olivier Robineau filled in for his brother Pascal who couldn’t participate because of an injury. When asked, the FIA stated that Olivier – should he be among the first 10 drivers – would get points as well.
This year – after the expiration of the deadline – father and son Rodrigues decided that they, too, wanted to participate. And right in the first race he entered, in Zolder, Rodrigues jr. gained his first point. Up till now he has got a total of 11 points, and his father Eduardo raked in 3 points. And so it would have been quite consequential that Markus Oestreich, who was a guest driver in Albacete – where he piloted the MAN of Jean-Pierre Belloc who had to meet other obligations – should get points, too, analogous to the agreement with the Robineau brothers last year in Zolder. And this was promised to team boss Lutz Bernau accordingly by the FIA officials on Saturday morning. But on Sunday evening he was told that Oese would not get any points on the grounds that Markus Oestreich did not register for the required minimum of 6 races and therefore would not qualify for getting points. Last year, however, both Chris Levett and Olivier Robineau took part only sporadically. And father and son Rodrigues did not incur a commitment to enter in at least 6 races, but are free to choose
whether they want to participate or not.
Adding further to the confusion was the fact that the responsible people in Albacete initially calculated the results based on the unofficial ranking lists from Zolder which were not correct because of the disqualifications that occurred after the lists were made. Now it seems that the matter was clarified, and after consideration of all the FIA statements the points on the FIA list correspondent with our list – but only for the drivers’ ranking.
The team ranking, although in correct order, does not list the points accurately. Suddenly Team Frankie got additional 3 points for Barcelona and Zolder, but nobody knows the reason why. And it could get even worse in Nogaro. As we know, Ross Garrett is going to drive the truck of Frankie Vojtisek who is still ill. It was already announced that Garrett – same as Oestreich in Albacete – would not get any points in the drivers’ ranking; but on the other hand, it would be possible for the Englishman to get points for the team.
