Coupe de France Camions curtain-raiser
07. May 2017While the truck racers on the British Isles have already completed two rounds of their championship, the action on the Continent will only begin in a week’s time. On 13 and 14 May, the same weekend as the new FIA European Truck Racing Championship season starts in Spielberg, Austria, the Coupe de France Camions also kicks off at Circuit de Charade near Clermont-Ferrand.
A grand total of 24 racers have registered for the French championship, and the Fédération Française du Sport Automobile (FFSA) is particularly pleased with the strength of the up-and-coming generation’s participation. Louis Meric (MAN) and the two DAF pilots Kevin Bassanelli, son of truck racing thoroughbred Michel Bassanelli, and Aurelien Hergott will race at all five rounds; TRO president Fabien Calvet’s son Téo will make his début in the course of the season as a race-by-race entrant in an MAN. The two youngest of this rookie quartet are only 16 and 17 years old!
For a few seasons now the battle for the French title has been dominated by MAN pilot Thomas Robineau, the 2016 winner, and Lionel Montagne (Renault), last season’s runner-up. Anthony Janiec, the strongest French truck racer of recent times, has always focused primarily on the ETRC, consequently having had to forgo individual rounds of his national championship when those clashed with his ETRC appearances. But whenever he did participate, he usually won everything there was to win – except that it wasn’t often enough to claim the title.
This year Lion boss Patrick Folleas has reorientated his team to winning the French championship, and will field up to four trucks (including race-by-race pilots) at some weekends. Preparatory to what promises to be a massive campaign, the team spent the week after Easter in Nogaro exhaustively testing all its trucks in the hands of a number of different drivers.
There’ll also be a strong Renault contingent piloting the Starships MKR – the two Portuguese José Sousa and José Teodosio, joined this season by Pole Gregory Ostaszewski, who replaces José Rodrigues in the Team 14 cockpit. All three have raced in the ETRC at some point, and are confident of their podium prospects in the Coupe de France Camions.
The large field – the 24 full-season entrants being supplemented by race-by-race aspirants wherever the track specifications permit – guarantees a high-voltage spectacle.
The Coupe de France Camions culminates in the finale in Albi in mid-October.
Impressions:
