Friday in Le Mans
12. October 2012Le Mans - At the 11th race of the FIA European Truckracing Championship in Le Mans, the weather forecast has the main priority. The forecasts are not only contradictory and changeable, but the current weather has been changing very abruptly. Heavy rainfall was followed by sunshine. On Thursday night some areas of Le Mans were hit by thunderstorms, some stores and deep-level garages were flooded. The sewers could not take in all the water, while only 3 km away at the Circuit Bugatti not only one raindrop had hit the ground. The truck racers hope that this will stay this way.
Almost all teams – with some stops on the way – drove straight from Jarama to Le Mans. The first ones already arrived on Tuesday night. After they had set up their tents, there was enough time to make a trip into the downtown area and visit one of the small restaurants in the old part of the town. Gerd Körber had not only been congratulated for his little daughter by his Schwabentruck-Team, but the news had spread through the entire paddock. Wherever “Mr. Truckracing” showed up, he had to shake hands. Sometimes they also talked about truckracing. The head of the TRO and FIA-Coordinator, Fabien Calvet, showed at the rehearsal for his show on Saturday night that he is still just as capable to handle a race truck as when he was still actively racing. The Swedish truckracing legend Boije Ovebrink will participate in the show tomorrow with his 2,100 HP strong Volvo-Hybrid and he also drove some more test laps. He then showed all the fine touches of his Volvo-Hybrid to another truckracing legend, Mike Ryan, the twelve-time winner of the Pikes Peak race – a 20 km long hill climb with almost 1,500 m of altitude difference and the finish in 4,300 m above sea level.
Some had hoped that there would be more information given about the upcoming season, such as information on the calendar or the new promoter. But it seems like this will have to wait until Sunday night. The only news that was heard was that there is a company called “Formula T One” that wants to engage in becoming the promoter. Maybe we will know more after the FIA-party.
Impressions:
