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Renault tests in Nogaro

Renault tests in Nogaro

02. April 2014Nogaro - While the MAN tests were underway at the Circuito del Jarama north of Madrid, some of the Renault teams in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship gathered at the Circuit Paul Armagnac in Nogaro for their own test session. The Jarama tests were somewhat like a pre-season boot camp for the MAN teams, but the meeting in Nogaro, initiated by Team-14 chief Dominique Kolow, was a rather relaxed affair attended only by his own team and the two others that had bought one each of Mario Kress’s MKR Renaults — the Franco-Portuguese Team VTR and Chris Levett from England.
Team 14 used the days in Nogaro to do more than just test — it also presented its new driver José Rodrigues. The Portuguese has been around in truck racing for a while. For years, he and his father Eduardo lit up the European championship with entertaining drives in self-built MAN race trucks. While Rodrigues Junior took his new Team 14 Renault out for a spin in Nogaro, his dad was pounding the asphalt in Jarama in his MAN.
Team 14’s primary sponsor Europart plans to use the FIA ETRC this year as a proving ground for its own-brand parts, and kicked off the association with the tests in Nogaro.
The “new” Renault belonging to the VTR team will, expectedly, be driven by Jose Fernandez Teodosio (POR). At the moment, the truck he drove last year lies “parked” in its garage and VTR will enter another truck in the FIA ETRC, last year’s Team 14 Renault, driven by another Portuguese, Jose Souza.
Levett, who’s 30 now, may count as one of the young guard in truck racing, but he’s been around for a long while already. For many years his family-owned logistics company Birds long ran its own MAN race team, following which Levett even drove another MAN for Truck Sport Bernau and a Buggyra Freightliner in 2011. The Englishman returns after a gap of two years, in a Renault he bought from Mario Kress, which he will race in the British championship and a few rounds of the FIA ETRC as well.
Kress and his MKR Renault Service Team were also on hand in Nogaro. Kress insisted that he was only there as a “tourist” and that his crew would be responsible for the hands-on stuff. He told www.truckracing.de / www.truckrace.info that he wanted to devote himself to his other interests as an entrepreneur. As far as motorsport went, he said, his priority would now be the Rallye Dakar — and he was pleased as punch that a truck powered by one of his engines finished higher in the overall ranking than vehicles from his old truckrace rivals MAN and Buggyra. He was categorical that truck racing would not be an important part of his life any more, and that he wouldn’t be on the scene either for much longer. We’ll see. After all, we’ve had several occasions to use that wise old paddock saying, “Once infected with the truck racing virus…”

Impressions:

Renault tests in Nogaro
Renault tests in Nogaro
Renault tests in Nogaro
Renault tests in Nogaro