Friday, 29.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Most Preliminary Report

Most Preliminary Report

27. August 2015Most - The European Truck Racing season resumes this weekend after a summer break that’s lasted all of nine weeks. But it would be a mistake to think the truck racers simply sat around with their hands in their laps, or basked in the sun the whole while. The teams continued to tweak their trucks, and test them too a fair bit. And one of their favourite test circuits is Autodrom Most in the west of the Czech Republic. The trip there is a rather short one for most of the teams, and the charges for the use of the circuit reasonable - as everyone is only too ready to point out. Most important of all is that vast amounts of comparative data from previous years are available for every sector of the circuit under all weather and track conditions.
And so the Autodrom once again scheduled tests for mid-August, an opportunity that Teams Frankie and Hahn Racing made full use of.
Every truckrace fan will have vivid images of Most with the race trucks on the track against the backdrop of towering smokestacks and cooling towers in the nearby industrial town Litvínov. As the racers were preparing to take to the track, a massive explosion shook the whole region around. From the paddock you could see clouds of smoke rise over Litvínov and a massive fire at a petrochemical unit.
For Most’s old-timers it was déjà vu. Twenty years ago, a fire at the same unit raged for four days and large areas around had to be evacuated.
It wasn’t quite as bad this time. The firefighters had the blaze quickly under control, preventing it from spreading to other parts of the facility.
The truck racers went about their tests without ado.
Without ado, too, those who now lead the championship will want to extend their string of victories when the FIA ETRC enters the second half of the season in Most.
Portuguese Eduardo Rodrigues (MAN), a full-season racer, has withdrawn. But there will be seven race-by-race pilots instead – home hero Frankie Vojtíšek (MAN), the three Germans Steffi Halm, Sascha Lenz (both MAN), and Gerd Körber (Iveco), the two Portuguese Renault pilots José de Sousa und José Teodosio, and Englishman Matthew Summerfield (MAN), – accounting for a chunk of the large field of 18 trucks.
The programme the 18 racers have on their hands this time is full to overflowing. Activities kick off on Thursday afternoon, with a showcase event in the heart of Most. The plan is for them to parade their trucks through the town – like they do in Nogaro – and then collect in the town centre for the public to marvel at the magnificent machines.
They’ll hardly have any breather on Friday either. The taxi rides for the press are scheduled for late morning, followed by the one-hour additional free practice session and then the regulation free practice in the afternoon. In the evening, the series’ newly appointed promoter ETRA will introduce itself to the teams.
It’s not only the truck racers who are going to be constantly busy; there’s lots even for the fans to do. On the grid walks before each of the days’ first races the spectators will for the first time get up as close as you can get to the trucks and racers on the track.
And it looks like the weather’s decided to be sporting too. The forecasts are fantastic, perhaps a tad too fantastic — temperatures around 30°C and all the sun you could wish for.

Impressions:

Most Preliminary Report
Most Preliminary Report