18 Pilots Registered

27. April 2010This year the end of the registration period fell on April 21 – a period which is probably the longest lasting one ever in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship – and today the entry list was published. And indeed it contains some surprises, some of which already coming up on the horizon during the last few days. For instance, in case of Buggyra there was no second pilot registered, meaning that the three time winner of the Team Championship will not defend his title this season.
A photo like the one shown above, with two Buggyra Freightliners heading the field, will now be a thing of the past – at least for the time being. No less surprising is the fact that the 2004 Champion, Stuart Oliver, is not registered for the European Championship; he will only participate in the British Championship this year.
There are a total of 18 entrants from 10 nations with seven different car makes – ten MANs, three Renaults and one brand each of Freightliner, Mercedes Benz, DAF, Scania and Mack. And there will also be two newcomers competing for the Championship, the Netherlander Erwin Kleinnagelvoort (Scania) and the Frenchman Olivier Bouzige (Mack). Both pilots have been involved with European Truck Racing for a long time, but they only registered for several events as race-by-race pilots so far. However, the Swede Mikael Johansson, who is highly popular with every camera man (and woman) because of his spectacular drifts in his Scania-Hauber, is not on the entry list this time.
France is the nation with the largest number of entrants (5 pilots), however, none of them is likely to become a serious competitor in the struggle for the title. But with Jochen Hahn (MAN) and Markus Oestreich (Renault) Germany has two really hot irons in the fire. And also Oese’s Swiss MKR team mate, Markus Bösiger, and the Spaniard Antonio Albacete (MAN) belong to those pilots who will make it as hard as possible for Buggyra pilot David Vrsecky to defend his title.
But this season will definitely see a new Team Champion. There are bright prospects for all three teams registered. For the only ‘old’ team – HahnOxxo (Jochen Hahn / Balazs Szobi) – their MAN brand colleagues from Truck Sport Bernau Team (Antonio Albacete / Christopher Levett) will be fierce competition. But the ‘great unknown’ is the team with the two Markuses (Bösiger and Oestreich). The MKR Renault, built by Mario Kress, is the only truck in the field which was completely reconstructed. So far nobody knows exactly, how powerful this vehicle really is. But Kress is an old hand in the truck racing business; he is the most successful constructer with a total of nine titles, and both pilots – Bösiger and Oestreich – are former European Champions, so that it would not come as a real surprise for anybody, if Kress got again among the major point scorers – in the pilot ranking as well as the team standing – just as in the old Buggyra days.
But we have 8 racing weekends ahead of us, or possibly even nine, because the event in Smolensk / Russia – which had until now been declared as an invitation race – was recently defined as a championship race by the FIA, albeit under reserve, as the circuit has not yet got the necessary homologation.