20 Trucks at the Start

15. April 2009Today the first FIA list of entrants for the FIA European Truck Racing Championship 2009 was released. There are even 24 trucks registered, 20 entrants for the championship and 4 more as race-by-race pilots – who will only take part in some of the races. The only newcomer is Alexander Lvov from Russia who is going to drive the second Allgäuer truck as successor of his fellow-countryman Mikhail Konovalov.
For the other yellow truck that Egon Allgäuer will drive, Daniel Seiler is enlisted as second pilot. Possibly the Swiss will pilot the truck when Allgäuer cannot take part due to an overlap in time between the European and the Brazilian Championship, because this year the Austrian is going carry out the plan he had in mind to realise already last season, he will compete in the FIA ETRC as well as in the Formula Truck Brazil.
And also for the only Mercedes Benz truck there are two pilots listed – Dominique Orsini and his son Flori Orsini. And there is another father/son duo, Eduardo and José Rodrigues, but both on separate trucks. Jeremy Robineau will follow in the footsteps of his father Pascal, whose MAN truck he has been driving already several times in the past.
It was understood that José Bermejo – contrary to his earlier announcement – would also register for the 2009 championship, but now the Spaniard is not on the list, and neither is his team mate of last year’s Mercedes Team, Steve Horne. Last year, Dominique Lachèze – after his switch from Renault Mack to MAN – had the most successful year in his long truck racing career, but yet the Frenchman announced already at an early stage that he will not participate this season. The Spaniard with the eye-catching Iveco Hauber, Antonio Conejero, who is just as long in the truck racing business as Lachèze, is also missing on the list. And two other pilots are not registered either, David Patalacci (DAF) and Frank Conti (Volvo) whose trucks added to the variety of makes in the truck racing scene.
Besides the 12 MAN RaceTrucks there are three Renaults, two Freightliners and one truck each of Mercedes Benz, DAF and Scania registered. The four race-by-race starters will add two more MAN as well as two Scania trucks.
The entrants competing for the European Champion Team title are as follows: title holder Buggyra Int. Racing System with David Vrsecky and Markus Bösiger on Freightliners, Frankie Truck Racing Team with Markus Altenstrasser and Frankie Vojtisek on Renaults, and the new Team Hahn Oxxo Racing with Jochen Hahn and Balazs Szobi on MANs.