Championnat de France Camions 2018 will have a 25-strong field

26. April 2018The FIA European Truck Racing Championship isn’t the only circuit series for fans of motorsport in XXL – there are two other, equally popular national big-rig series in Europe, the British Truck Racing Championship and the Championnat de France Camions.
While the Brits are already through two of the rounds in their series, with 22 pilots vying for honours in Divisions 1 and 2, with MAN drivers Ryan Smith and Luke Garrett in the respective class leads, their counterparts on the continent have yet to get into formation, so to speak. Today is the deadline for registration for the FIA championship, and the entry list should be out in a few days.
In France this process is long over, and the first races there start on Pentecost weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard near Castellet in the south of France.
A whopping 25 truck racers are in the fray for the entire season, plus six more race-by-race entrants including oldies Noël Crozier and Maurice Monfrino. Reminds you once again of the adage that truck racing is a virus for which there’s no known cure.
Even the list of full-season campaigners has some prominent names. At the top is last year’s champion Anthony Janiec, who also has several years of experience in the European championship, and an outsize reputation to boot. His MAN colleague in the Lion Truck Racing team, TRO president Fabien Calvet’s son Téo, caused no small stir last season when, at 16, he roared into the annals as the youngest ever winner of a truck race at Nogaro.
The difference in age between him and the oldest driver in this year’s Championnat de France is well above 50 years, very likely another record.
But the French championship is also very diverse from another crucial perspective – it’s got trucks from seven manufacturers in all.