Grand Prix Camions du Castellet – Day 2
15. May 2016Le Castellet - The second day of the season-opening round of the Coupe de France Camions in Le Castellet started with a reasonably-sized traffic jam. Under a brilliant blue sky, which seemed to stretch over the entire south of France, it looked like every truck enthusiast and truckrace fan in France had decided to make a beeline for Circuit Paul Ricard - and there were 40,000 of them on the road.
The truck racers themselves were in their trucks and ready to roll on time for warm-up early in the morning.
Somewhat later, when qualifying rolled round, it was once again teams and drivers with ETRC experience that set the pace. At the end of the session only six-tenths of a second covered the top four – the two MAN pilots Anthony Janiec of Lion Truck Racing and Thomas Robineau of Robineau Competition, and the two Renault racers José Rodrigues of Team 14 and Lionel Montagne of Aravi Racing, – the gap between Janiec and Robineau measuring a hair’s-breadth six-hundredths!
In Sunday’s first race Janiec left nobody in any doubt that he was going to grab his third win of the weekend, taking the lead at the start followed closely by Robineau. In the later stages the Lion pilot had sprung ahead, going on to take the flag with a lead of 7 seconds.
The battle for third place was much more closely fought. Rodrigues was ahead of Montagne from the start, but simply couldn’t shake off his French Renault rival. It was only on the final lap that Rodrigues was able to pull ahead somewhat and so take third place.
The fight for fifth too was a duel to the death between two Renaults, the trucks of Portuguese José Teodosio (Team VTR) and Jean-Claude Labadie (Lion Truck Racing). At the end Teodosio finished a nose ahead, allowing Labadie the consolation of pole for the final race of the weekend.
And the Lion pilot used his start position to good advantage.
In the tear to the first corner Labadie, who was on the inside, had Teodosio and Rodrigues alongside, the lattermost a few inches ahead. The three trucks touched, Teodosio went wide, where he then collided more heavily with Rodrigues. Both Portuguese found themselves off the track, Rodrigues having spun to face the oncoming field.
While Labadie continued unaffected in the lead, the two injured parties had to first let the field go by. Janiec, Montagne, and Robineau meanwhile lined up in pursuit of the leader, whom they then proceeded to make short work of, one after the other in short order. Not only did Janiec make it four out of four with all 60 points he could win out of the four races; even the two remaining podium places were thus decided.
All this while Rodrigues and Teodosio were fighting their way back up the 18-strong field.
After the fourth lap the Team 14 pilot was already up to 7th, but then had to pit and park his Renault because of a technical failure.
Teodosio was a bit more sedate in his pursuit, but ran well in the points right till the finish, taking 6th behind Volvo pilot Franck Conti of Team Truck Competition Spirit.
Impressions:
