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FIA ETRC Dates 2011

FIA ETRC Dates 2011

28. October 2010Since early October the full dates for the 2011 FIA European Truck Racing Championship are listed on the news page of our WebPortal – however still with the addition “provisional”. This is met with incomprehension by many people, as the truck racing commission had released these dates already on September 6.
However, up to now there is no official confirmation on the part of the FIA, but apparently this applies to all the other FIA series as well. In case of the truck racing series major changes are not very likely; the only round where there might still be a question mark is the first event of the season which is supposed to be held in Donington. On the other hand, the teams would like to know as soon as possible whether the season is due to start at the end of April or three weeks later in Misano.
The truck racers are not really fond of remembering the incident in 2008. They had all been looking forward to competing in Great Britain, but a few weeks prior to the race Donington cancelled the event. From then on the British circuits – and Donington in particular – seemed to have been “sent to Coventry” so to speak. All the more surprising was now the date scheduled for 2011 on the British Isles.
Apart from that, there are only the “classic” circuits on the list, and mostly the dates for the respective venues are almost the same as every year – although the round in Le Mans will be held 3 weeks later than usual. Same as in 2003 and 2006 the final round will again take place at the Circuit Bugatti. In Le Mans the location for the official FIA ceremony was situated within the huge area of the traditional circuit, only a few minutes walking distance from the paddock, which suited the teams just fine.
But the truck racers feel much less comfortable when they think back on the freak weather in Le Mans at the end of October, for instance on Saturday morning back in 2003. The free practices were scheduled for 8:30 a.m., but the circuit was wreathed in mist and the track was covered in ice. The start of the races was delayed by almost 5 hours.
The 2011 season commences about 3 weeks earlier than usual, so there is reason to hope that the truck racers won’t fall prey to any extreme autumnal weather conditions. There is only a week’s break between the penultimate and the final event which means that the teams will proceed directly from Jarama to Le Mans. This will reduce travel costs, but on the other hand they will be on the road for 2 weeks or even longer.
And it will take at least just as long to travel to the furthermost circuit, the Smolenskring. Mike Konovalov, the contact person for the truck racers in Russia, had indicated in Jarama that they were thinking about a more convenient way to travel to Smolensk. One of their suggestions was a passage on a ferry ship with destination Saint Petersburg. But at present there is only one regular ferry service – from Lübeck-Travemünde / Germany. The ship departs on Saturday evening and, after a 60 hour voyage on the Baltic Sea, enters the port of Saint Petersburg on Tuesday morning. And from there the teams still have to cover about 1,000 kilometres on Russian roads to reach the Smolenskring.
This means that by the time the teams are back in Lübeck 14 days will have elapsed – not including the 2 to 5 days they need to travel to the ferry port and back. For several teams this would mean a three-week journey; regardless of the huge costs for the passage – for instance, the small „truckracing.de /truckrace.info“ team would have to pay a total amount of approx. 2,700 € incl. vehicle – this mode of travel will probably not be acceptable.
But perhaps Mike will succeed – as was already suggested jokingly – in chartering an “Antonov” plane. There would certainly be room enough for the entire equipment of all the truck racers. After all, Smolensk has got 2 big airports, and the northern one could easily cope with such a huge cargo aircraft. But unfortunately both airports are closed to international air traffic.
However, when all is said and done the only alternative will probably be again the overland route.