Friday, 29.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Race truck for sale — new teams, new drivers

Race truck for sale — new teams, new drivers

24. January 2014The discrepancies in the 2014 calendar for the FIA European Truck Racing Championship now definitively out of the way, it’s time to get down to business. In a little over two months the new season will start for many teams with the now obligatory MAN test days. The rumours, meanwhile, continue to fly. It’s certainly no rumour, though, that the Belgian Jean-Pierre Blaise has put his truck up for sale. Blaise drove the blue-and-silver Renault to 14th place overall last season and finished third in the Sponsors’ Challenge. Whether he will still race this coming season — we don’t know yet.
Mario Kress has already sold at least two of his MKR Renaults, to teams and/or drivers that are active in the FIA ETRC or national championships. One of the trucks has gone to Team 14, and will probably be driven by the Portuguese Jose Rodrigues. Rodrigues and his father Eduardo first took part in races of the European Championship way back in 2000; in 2003 the junior Rodrigues actually finished fifth in the standings. In the last few years, however, the Rodrigues duo have only participated in the occasional race in an MAN truck.
Jose Fernandes Teodosio will occupy the cockpit of a second MKR Renault. Teodosio can’t boast the wealth of experience his compatriot Rodrigues can, but he did win his first championship points in Smolensk last year.
Ex-Team 14 pilot Anthony Janiec is rumoured to be working on establishing a new team. As for Markus Bösiger, the 2007 truck champion, it would have surprised nobody if he’d used the occasion of the withdrawal of his long-time yokefellow Mario Kress from active racing to hang up his own gloves. Bösiger’s numerous business engagements have been making increasing demands on his time, not to speak of his grandchildren! But no other name’s been talked about so much when the topic is about vacant race truck cockpits. In the paddock everybody knows that Bösiger may take his time to plan, but in the end his decisions are suddenly made, and sometimes very surprising.
René Reinert could soon welcome another driver to his MAN team — all signs point to that eventuality. Buggyra introduced its three Czech drivers – David Vršecký, Adam Lacko, and Michal Matějovský – in December, but even then Matějovský was only going to drive selected races, not the entire season. Speculation about who will drive the third Freightliner in the remaining races is now getting out of hand, even though Buggyra itself hasn’t let it be known whether this truck will indeed be employed in every race.
At times one cannot rid oneself of the impression that some of the rumours are deliberately floated to spark off the discussion in the first place. Only at the beginning of April, when the FIA’s registration deadline passes, will there be clarity, at least concerning the permanent participants. Race-by-race entrants only have to register 14 days before a race, so there remains a lot of room for speculation there.

Impressions:

Race truck for sale — new teams, new drivers
Race truck for sale — new teams, new drivers
Race truck for sale — new teams, new drivers