National truck racing championships

18. January 2016Mention truck racing in Europe and the first thing you think of is the European Truck Racing Championship. But there are other truck racing series as well, the most popular of those being the championships in England and France. After all, truck races were first held in those countries long before the European championship came into existence.
Last year a good 22 drivers registered for the series organised by the British Truck Racing Association. There were in addition guest drivers, so that 26 drivers finished the season with points.
Each race has trucks in two different performance classes, and the finishers in each are classified separately. The less powerful trucks start ahead, and there are almost always spectacular scenes when the Division 1 pack catches up with the group from Division 2. Then you have up to 20 trucks and sometimes even more grill-to-bumper in the narrowest of spaces.
The 2016 season consists of nine race weekends, eight of those on the British Isles and the traditional Truck Grand Prix stopover at the Nürburgring, where the races for the Mittelrhein Cup also count towards the British championship.
The competitors in the Coupe de France Camion don’t do quite as many races - last year there were only four weekends in the French championship; this year there will be five. And as many as 23 registrations have already been received.
Competing for the title in either of these national championships makes it impossible to participate in all the rounds of the European Championship. For the English pilots not only do the dates overlap; racing at so many events in one season is more than most of the teams, semi-professional at best, are capable of managing with their limited resources.
Now the participants in the Coupe de France may not face the same burden, but the French teams’ interest in the European Championship has flagged in recent times. From six French pilots in the FIA series in 2012, there was only one last year. Two of the Coupe de France races are part of ETRC events. On the face of it, that would appear to be advantageous, but the fact is that the trucks lining up on the grid were more often than not of one series, while those of the other stood in parc fermé. Racing in both series has, till now, been an impossibility.
We reproduce below the calendars for the European championship and the two national series.

FIA ETRC
29.04. - 01.05.2016 - Spielberg (AUT)
28.05. - 29.05.2016 - Misano (ITA)
10.06. - 12.06.2016 - Nogaro (FRA)
01.07. - 03.07.2016 - Nürburgring (GER)
26.08. - 28.08.2016 - Hungaroring (HUN)
02.09. - 04.09.2016 - Most (CZE)
16.09. - 18.09.2016 - Zolder (BEL)
01.10. - 02.10.2016 - Jarama (ESP)
08.10. - 09.10.2016 - Le Mans (FRA)

Great Britain
27.03. - 28.03.2016 - Brands Hatch
23.04. - 24.04.2016 - Pembrey
11.06. - 12.06.2016 - Thruxton
01.07. - 03.07.2016 - Nürburgring
23.07. - 24.07.2016 - Donington Park
13.08. - 14.08.2016 - Silverstone
10.09. - 11.09.2016 - Snetterton
15.10. - 16.10.2016 - Pembrey
06.11. - 06.11.2016 - Brands Hatch

France
14.05. - 15.05.2016 - Le Castellet
10.06. - 12.06.2016 - Nogaro
24.09. - 25.09.2016 - Charade
08.10. - 09.10.2016 - Le Mans
22.10. - 23.10.2016 - Albi

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