A Year of ‚Famine’

19. March 2009The story of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dream – First Book of Moses, chapter 41 – that seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of famine, is not only known to people who are well-versed in the Bible. This means that after seven lean years it should actually get better. As the boom years of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship ran out in 2001 already, when the big names in truck racing cut down on their financial involvement or even pulled out completely, 2008 should have been the last one of the lean years. However, people who set their hope on a boost for 2009, will be bitterly disappointed. Quite the opposite, this year will be a lean one in every respect.
The teams and pilots have to make every effort to get their urgently needed financial means – in spite of partly heavy restrictions. Meanwhile several local race organisers of the FIA ETRC offer reductions of up to 40 or even 50 per cent to the industry and the exhibitors for the stands in their respective paddocks or industrial estates. Nevertheless, one of the large-scale protagonists implied that in 2009 they will probably cease their PR activities related to truck racing – they won’t even be present at the Truck Grand Prix on the Ring.
Of course the reasons provided are always the current financial and economic crises. In 2001, after the September 11 attacks in New York City, everything that happened thereafter was attributed to this incident. But whereas later not only the former level could be regained in almost every area of life as well as the economic sector, but was often even exceeded, the FIA European Truck Racing Championship became stagnant – except for the sporting achievements. It was a far cry from the exuberance of the nineties. All in all the truck racing scene became more modest; in retrospect many a person looked upon the last years of the SuperRaceTrucks as a time that got a bit out of hand.
But scarcely anybody would have thought that we from Europe would sometime cast a glance at the Formula Truck in Brazil with quite some envy.
At first, founder and organiser Aurelio was still influenced by the European truck racing. But with their explicit and clear outline and responsibilities, an integrated management and uniform marketing strategy – including extensive broadcasting hours on TV – and an identically elaborate course of events, the Formula Truck reached a remarkably high standard. In contrast, the FIA European Truck Racing Championship is a succession of individual race events, where finally the points each pilot achieved in the different rounds, are added up. The only instrument that keeps everything together is the FIA with their sporting and technical sovereignty. If we had an organization like the one across the big pond, we could certainly start the coming season without much less uncertainty.