Testing for new season begins
08. November 2013Many of the teams that participated in the 2013 FIA European Truck Racing Championship may appear to be more preoccupied with the season-ending celebrations than with their race trucks, but the fact is that for everyone concerned the new season has already begun. Last week a couple of teams kicked off their first tests for 2014. Markus Bauer ordered his tankpool24 team to the Hockenheimring, where André Kursim put the Mercedes race truck to a shakedown — away from public view. Buggyra, on the other hand, made its tests a very public affair. The team from the Czech Republic had invited many guests to its now traditional autumn tests in Most, 90 km from the team’s base in Roudnice nad Labem. Among them were a few representatives of the local media, who capitalised on the opportunity to sneak a couple of laps – albeit as passengers – in the race truck piloted, naturally, by David Vršecký. But the long-time Buggyra driver wasn’t alone. German amazon Ellen Lohr, who for the last two race weekends in Jarama and Le Mans had switched from the tankpool24 Mercedes to the second Buggyra Freightliner, where she’d stood in for Iurii Egorov, who was out of action with a broken hand, was also busy at the tests – in completely ladylike fashion – in the pink-striped No. 25 Freightliner. While ladies are an absolute minority in the FIA ETRC, here in Most it was fifty-fifty. The incapacitated Iurii Egorov was now represented by another lady, Russian touring-car pilot Natali Golcova, and she was completely hooked after her first go in a race truck.
The fourth racer at the tests in Most, a surprise guest at that, was Adam Lacko. The MKR Renault driver obviously wouldn’t be denied a couple of laps in the Freightliner. While this wasn’t an entirely new experience for Lacko – in 2005 the Czech drove a few races as a guest in the (then) Toll Collect Freightliner, – his presence ignited the fantasies of several observers and set the rumour mill grinding.
Although the contract between MKR and Renault Trucks ran out at the end of the season, there have been detailed discussions between MKR chief Mario Kress and Renault about whether and how they should work together next season. Renault is expected to announce the contours of its future engagement in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship to the media and the public in an official press release shortly.
Photographs: Martin Kozak/BUGGYRA 2013, tankpool24 Racing Team
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