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Truck Grand Prix – Preliminary Report / Part I

Truck Grand Prix – Preliminary Report / Part I

30. June 2011Regulars of our WebPortal „truckracing.de / truckrace.info“ – and there are almost 1 million people worldwide who have been visiting this website around 18.8 million times over the last 12 months – know that for every round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship there is always a preliminary report – but for the Truck Grand Prix at the Ring there will even be more than one this year, because already in the run-up to the TGP there are so many things worth telling that one single report will not be enough. And this event is bound to be rather stressful for all people involved.
Within a four-week time period 3 highlights of the season are scheduled; the “24 Hours”, the TGP and the Formula One. And as the Truck Grand Prix is by now 25 years old, with the 26th edition, they have come up with a few more highlights.
Three of our truck racing pilots already took part in the 24 Hours event at the Ring last weekend. Steffi Halm was successful in the Mini Challenge and Uwe Nittel was even at the start with two cars, an Artega GT and an Aston Martin. Markus Oestreich was less lucky, as his Mini Cooper caught fire after less than a third of the race.
But that will certainly not happen to Oese at the TGP. But before the pilots can take to the track, the organisers and the respective team bosses will have to solve quite a few other problems; it will be a tight squeeze at the Ring this year.
At this event the run of the truck racers – on the FIA races as well as the Mittelrhein Cup – is as great as rarely before. And the Formel racers as well as the GT vehicles of the ADAC Masters are going to compete, too. And above all, the renewed interest in exhibition space gives proof of the economic upswing particularly in the commercial vehicle industry. Two years ago many long-time exhibitors tightened their belts concerning the TGP and some of them even stayed away, but now there is a big boom in the paddock and the industrial estate.
But Mercedes Benz will certainly steal the show, their exhibition space probably measures about 8,000 square metres (approx. 86,000 square feet), which means it is five times as large as before. Their new Actros will take centre stage and they have all sorts of activities in store around its presentation. And also the second German large scale manufacturer of commercial vehicles, MAN, will again receive their visitors in their huge hospitality units to wine and dine them, just like another big manufacturer of commercial vehicles, Renault Trucks – and both MAN and Renault are also sponsor partners of „truckracing.de / truckrace.info“. For DKV – who is a sponsor partner of this WebPortal, too – the TGP, where they are one of the main sponsors, always was the top event. Traditionally truckers and also car drivers who have got the official Nürburgring label stuck to their vehicle can win a DKV-sponsored journey to the truck racing event in Jarama / Spain – with all the trimmings. And considering all those fringe events it gets tighter for the truck racers, and already in the run-up they fight for every metre, because for most of the teams and their sponsors the TGP is also the year’s highlight par excellence. At the Ring they want to present themselves, to receive guests and to have motivating conversations.
As one can see, there are a lot of questions to be clarified beforehand that have absolutely nothing to do with the races.
But one question was already cleared up, there will again be a video- live-streaming available for all the truck races this year. The ADAC Mittelrhein as organiser and right holder will provide the pictures free of charge and will assume the necessary infrastructure.
And all the other expenses will be covered by courtesy of the sponsors listed below:

Truck Sport Lutz Bernau
Team Hahn Racing
Markus Bauer Motorsport
Renault Trucks
Meritor
TRO-TruckRaceOrganisation
bartscher.net.

At present talks are being held with other potential sponsors, so that perhaps it will be possible to further increase the financial means.

Impressions:

Truck Grand Prix – Preliminary Report / Part I
Truck Grand Prix – Preliminary Report / Part I
Truck Grand Prix – Preliminary Report / Part I