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Smolensk – Preliminary Report

Smolensk – Preliminary Report

26. July 2011This year there is a 3-week break – 7 more days than last year – between the Truck Grand Prix at the Ring and the round in Smolensk, the event that certainly demands a lot more personal effort of the people involved than all the other venues, but despite that additional week there is hardly any time to relax for the teams. Some of the teams started on their journey as early as Friday, and on Monday morning most of them assembled at the German-Polish border and went on in convoy to the MAN car dealer NordTruck in Bialystok / Poland. A smaller group, consisting of seven vehicles, had gone directly from the Czech Republic to the actual meeting point, the Latvian border town Terehova, and on Tuesday afternoon passed already through the Russian customs. Tomorrow, on Wednesday, they will go on to the Smolenskring in convoy – again escorted by the police. The „truckracing.de / truckrace.info“ team will not join the convoy this year, but it is planned that Christian Thumshirn from schweiz5 will shoot a film for „truckrace.tv“, reporting about the journey.
Same as in 2010, the truck racers will not take the shorter route to Smolensk via Belarus, but will again make a detour and pass through Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. But it’s not a completely new experience anymore, the teams know what to expect and therefore approach this adventure much more relaxed and optimistic.
Probably a bit less relaxed were some of the FIA officials with regard to the closing date for entries for the round at the Smolenskring. Initially the expected entry number was 16, but finally there were 13 trucks registered, the same number as last year. As laid down in article 3.4 of the FIA regulations a minimum number of 12 RaceTrucks is required for an event to take place; if there are fewer than 12 trucks the organiser may cancel the event – which, however, is a thing the organisers in Smolensk would never have done. But of course the FIA and the TRO-TruckRaceOrganisation will take pains to have as many trucks registered as possible – and not only the minimum number.
Besides the pilots holding the positions 1 to 11 on the championship points table – Jochen Hahn (MAN-GER), Antonio Albacete (MAN-ESP), Markus Oestreich (Renault-GER), Uwe Nittel (MAN-GER), Adam Lacko (Renault-CZE), David Vrsecky (Freightliner-CZE), Markus Bösiger (Renault-SUI), Christopher Levett (Freightliner-GBR), Alex Lvov (MAN-RUS), Stuart Oliver (MAN-GBR) and Anthony Janiec (Renault-FRA) – two other drivers are registered: José Bermejo (MAN-ESP) and Florian Orsini (Mercedes-FRA); and naturally both pilots cherish hopes that in Smolensk they will be able to collect their first points.
Last year Mike Konovalov, who is actively involved in the organisation of the TruckRace event in Smolensk, also participated as race-by-race pilot, but this year Alex Lvov will be the only one to represent the national flag of Russia.
Last year it was blazing hot at the Smolenskring and throughout Russia, and it was the time when devastating forest fires blazed across the country. There isn’t much fear of it this year, on the contrary. It’s not possible to get any weather forecasts for the Smolenskring, only for the Oblast Smolensk – which is comparable to the German “Regierungsbezirk” (administrative district), save that an “Oblast” is much bigger.
Some days ago the weather forecast was really pessimistic – they even predicted intense rain. But according to the latest forecast it won’t be that bad, with temperatures of around 25 °C (77 °F), but supposedly Saturday will be the only day without rain, and there is a high rain probability for the other days.
But the weather services were mistaken quite a few times and, what’s more, the forecast applies to a huge region; perhaps it’s precisely the Smolenskring which will be spared from the rain showers.

Impressions:

Smolensk – Preliminary Report
Smolensk – Preliminary Report
Smolensk – Preliminary Report
Smolensk – Preliminary Report