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Preliminary report for Nogaro

Preliminary report for Nogaro

20. June 2012Circuit Paul Armagnac in the city of Nogaro in the south of France has a really unique allure. The entrance of the circuit is only a few minutes away from the idyllic city center. There is no other circuit in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship where the truck racers can stroll through the streets this relaxed. But when the racing starts the relaxing time is over. Every year there are ten times as many spectators as people living in Nogaro (3,000).After a long time Jean-Phillipe Belloc will be at the starting line again and he is also a “local hero”. He comes from Montauban, which is one hour away. The French sportscar and GT driver has also been very successful in the truck racing business in the past. It will be the first race in the FIA ETRC for Lion Truck Racing Team from Lyon that bought the equipment, including three MAN trucks, from Egon Allgäuer. Steffi Halm is not on the entry list for the race of the European Championship and it is expected that she will be at the starting line for the Lion Team only in the French Championship. This race will also take place in Nogaro. So far the young German woman was able to give the ex-champion and French serial winner, Noel Crozier, hell. That’s why the eagerly expected amazon-duel with Ellen Lohr (GER) will not take place. Last year Halm still drove Lohr’s tankpool24-Mercedes. The men from MB-Motorsport hope to have solved the problem with the engine control unit that first occurred in Misano.
It will also be the first time for Alexander Lvov (RUS) this season. He will be driving the third MAN of Frankie OXXO Truck Racing Team. The race truck had not been finished in time for the race in Jamara. The trucks definitely have a lot of potential, which could be seen at the Pole of Norbert Kiss after the last race, but there are also still many “teething problems” concerning the totally new developed trucks. In the starting field off 22 drivers, Jochen Hahn (GER) and Antonio Albacete (ESP) will continue to call the shots. But also the top MAN drivers are vulnerable. This fact was emphasized by a broken clamp at the inner tube of Hahn’s race truck in Jamara. “This is peanuts”, the German claimed rather shocked, “this can be fixed within a minute”. This little mishap cost him many points. The head of MKR-Renault, Mario Kress, will not only count on those weak spots, especially because his trucks have also had failures this season.
While Markus Oestreich (GER) was able to partly keep up with the two leading MAN drivers, his teammates Adam Lacko (CZE) and Markus Bösiger (SUI) were constantly struggling with technical problems. Especially the Swiss had inexplicable performance problems at the end of the races. However, MKR seems confident that they will gain control over this problem soon. Otherwise the fight over points has become very tight. There are 15 candidates for the point-finishes and sometimes it’s a fraction of a second or a little mistake that decides in the end whether someone can compete in the top ten or not.

Impressions:

Preliminary report for Nogaro