Entry List 2011 – nineteen Gentlemen and one Lady

09. April 2011More than one week after the championship entry closing date the FIA published the first entry list for the 2011 season – however, only the starting list for the opening round in Donington. Actually you would have expected that the first list they published was the one stating the names of the drivers registered for the championship. But from the Donington starting list conclusions can be drawn for the FIA list, and there are 20 RaceTrucks registered. Again there will be a powerful MAN armada with as many as 10 trucks – headed by title defender Antonio Albacete (ESP), his new team colleague Uwe Nittel (GER) and fellow German Jochen Hahn as well as Stuart Oliver (GBR) and Alex Lvov (RUS). Besides these MAN top five there are Zoltan Birnbauer (HUN), Mika Mäkinen (FIN), José Bermejo (ESP), Jeremy Robineau (FRA) and Mathew Summerfield (GBR).
Renault will participate with five RaceTrucks and the following pilots: Markus Bösiger (SUI), Markus Oestreich (GER) and Adam Lacko (CZE) – MKR Team, plus Anthony Janiec (FRA) as well as the „soloist“ Jean-Pierre Blaise (BEL), who has swapped the truck brand.
And the third “force” to be reckoned with will be the Buggyra Freightliners with David Vsrecky (CZE) and Chris Levett (GBR). And again two true lone fighters are going to take part: Scania pilot Erwin Kleinnagelvoort (NLD) and Florian Orsini (FRA) in his Mercedes Benz truck that has seen “better days”.
Last but not least, there is yet another, also privately owned, Mercedes Benz, the truck of Markus Bauer’s tankpool.24 Team. This racer will certainly be in the focus of the media – even if it should not be among the leading trucks – because it will be piloted by Stephanie Halm, currently Germany’s fastest female driver. Steffi, as she is generally called, is only 26 years old, but she has been a passionate motorsports woman for 17 years, and with remarkable success, recently in the Mini Challenge series and the Porsche GT3 Cup.
As previously reported, there are five teams registered for the team championship this season. When defending their title, the MKR “senior” Team with Bösiger and Oestreich will be supported by the MKRTeam 14 “juniors” Lacko and Janiec – who are only half the age of the “seniors” – and those two pilots will certainly manage to snatch away quite a few points from the two strongest rival teams, Buggyra with Vrsecky and Levett, and Cepsa Truck Sport Bernau with Albacete and Nittel. And the one to tip the scales could probably be the Hungarian-Finnish Team Oxxo-Birnbauer/Mäkinen. Although it can be assumed that their trucks won’t always be able to match up to the pace of the top teams, they may by all means be good for a podium place now and then.