Only ten more races?!

07. March 2012Only five weeks ago we announced on this page that there will be 11 race weekends in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship in 2012. Not everyone was pleased by that, since the goal for over ten years has been: 10 races in 10 countries. Even though it has not yet been officially confirmed by the FIA, it seems there will be 10 races in 9 countries – the race in Albacete, Spain, will be cancelled. In the past, this race has benefitted from regional subsidies, but because this money has now been cut off (apparently due to the difficult economic situation in Spain) the race cannot be financed anymore. Despite this issue all teams keep on planning for the new race season. Within the next couple of days the truck racing legend, Frankie Vojtisek from Czech Republic, will introduce the new team. What can already be revealed is that some truck racing fans will be surprised about the new truck racing offensive from Eastern Europe. The old team “Frankie” has not only changed the brand, but also grown enormously in size. Another well-known driver from France, Oliver Bouzige, who has been participating in the European championship every now and then, is now building a new Renault race truck. During his last European championship, Bouzige drove an orange Mack - that looked really spectacular, and photographers were happy to have something to take pictures of. However, Bouziger was never really able to make it under the top 10 with his “vintage car“. The 46 year old Frenchman hopes that this is going to change with the new race truck. A totally new member of the FIA ETRC is the Lion truck racing team of the French logistics provider, Patrick Folleas. His company, called BFT Transports, is based in Lyon, France and has bought the entire race equipment from the Allgäuer Team. The flamboyant yellow MAN race trucks already had their first trials in Nogaro. However, it has not been decided who is going to drive them. There were some unexpected drivers sitting behind the wheel at the testing on the Circuit Paul Armagnac. Until the FIA application deadline it’s still more than 5 weeks to go – and until then there is still a lot that can happen.

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