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New Date, New Tyre Regulations

New Date, New Tyre Regulations

16. November 2010Recently we are asked time and again about news from the truck racing community. But in fact there aren’t any news at present; the truck racers have some leisure time, too, if they aren’t already preparing for the coming season – either by engaging themselves in constructing or even testing new RaceTrucks already or in their capacity as “officials”, and on one of these occasions Lutz Bernau, as a member of the truck racing commission, had indeed announced some news – but everything is not yet official, it does not carry the FIA’s “seal” so far.
The next truck racing season will possibly start one week earlier than previously planned. As far as Donington is concerned there was already a small question mark – however not with regard to the date, but people where rather wondering whether or not the British circuit would become one of the venues of the ETRC (see also “FIA ETRC Dates 2011”, dated October 28, 2010). Now it was suddenly put about that the season was going to start on the weekend April 23/24, 2011 – instead of April 30/May 1 – but so far neither date was confirmed.
The vexed question of the tyres was on the agenda of the truck racing commission, too, and in this matter a decision was taken that will allegedly only affect the top ten pilots in the championship as follows: At every race weekend the top ten drivers have to draw lots before the first timed practice and then they get 6 new tyres – i.e. one set of tyres – they have to use in the timed practice as well as in both championship races. On the second day they will have to draw lots again to get another 6 tyres for the timed practice and the two races.
If a driver plans to start on the second day with the same tyres he used the day before, he has to hand these tyres in at the Parc Fermé one hour after the last race on the first day at the latest, where they are shut away till the next morning. Of course this doesn’t mean that the tyre contingent for this pilot will go up, because as a compensation for the “old” tyres he keeps he has to give back the respective number out of his share of new tyres.
If 6 tyres won’t suffice for a pilot, sanctions will be imposed, such as having to start from the back of the starter field.
In case of evidently damaged tyres it is incumbent upon stewards to provide the pilots concerned with new tyres. But according to Lutz Bernau this rule is only applicable when the tyre was damaged in a not-at-fault accident. Generally a pilot is only blamed for an accident in case of massive infringements; most of these incidents are regarded as normal race accidents – and normally there aren’t any accusations, so that in these cases the pilots should get new tyres.
But what if a truck suffers a damaged tyre without being involved in an accident? And what if, in the heat of the moment, a pilot careens off the track, resulting in a damaged tyre?
Of course in the latter case it would be the pilot’s fault. Would this mean the end of the racing day for him?
But the commission has come up with something special – the “joker tyre”. Every pilot will get 6 of these jokers for the whole season, giving him the opportunity to get 6 additional new tyres and use them at his discretion. However, for every joker tyre he gets he has to return a used tyre. And among those tyres there will certainly be damaged ones, too, even if the information available so far does not explicitly reveal this.