Friday, 29.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Nogaro - This and That

Nogaro - This and That

01. July 2008That was yet again a race weekend to the taste of the truck racers, fantastic weather - so that even the short, but severe thunderstorm at Thursday evening couldn't temper the delight - and an enthusiastic crowd of about 32,000. Nonetheless, the atmosphere was not as easygoing and relaxed as usual in Nogaro. There had been discussions about organisational issues beforehand, which brought about some discrepancies, and this dissonance could be felt during the weekend. But what really caused a frenzy of activity among the teams, was FIA Technical Manager Fabien Calvet's announcement that in France on Monday morning there would possibly begin another truck blockade, similar to the one in Spain after the final race. And so the question asked most frequently was: Are you going to leave on Sunday evening, too?
And indeed, several teams had already been packing their belongings over the course of the day, so that after the final race they only waited for the Parc Fermé to be opened. Afterwards the RaceTruck was loaded, and then they pushed their way through the people strolling around the paddock. The fans watched almost in disbelief, after all, the final race of the French Championship was yet to come. In the evening there were hardly any teams left in the paddock, everything looked rather desolate. The cosy get-together after the races, which was always characteristic for Nogaro, did not come off this time. Some teams watched the final of the European Football Championship on TV, and then some more teams set off, too.
On Monday morning we got more detailed information about the blockade actions of the French truckers. Here, too, the cause for the blockade was the extremely high price for diesel, which - as many of them fear - could lead to the loss of jobs. And as, beginning from today, July 1st, France holds the EU Presidency, they wanted to give prominence to their protest with spectacular actions. They planned to take action primarily in the areas around Paris and Bordeaux as well as several other big cities.
The first team to leave in the early morning was the Swedish team of Michael Johansson, but a little later - on the N 124 near Auch - they were caught up in a traffic jam as some trucks obstructed a roundabout. And when just before Lyon on the opposite carriageway three tractor units approached, driving side by side at a speed of about 20 km/h - with two rows of cars several kilometres long behind them, we decided on the spur of the moment to leave France as fast as can be and to return home via Switzerland.