Istanbul this and that
15. May 2012The trip to Istanbul for the first race of the season was somewhat a journey into the unknown for the teams of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship. Prior to the race there was not enough information given to the teams, but the closer it came to the actual date of the race it started to become clearer and the teams learned that the Truck Racing Organization (TRO), the local organizer, b-planet and TOSFED did not only already deal with the problems regarding the trip itself but also arranged everything for the race. The fact that the ship arrived late on Thursday in the port of Pendik (near Istanbul) was not a big issue anymore. However, what the teams and their drivers did not like was that they already had to start demounting their whole equipment while the last race was still taking place. That was because the time of loading was moved ahead from 2 p.m. on Monday to 10 p.m. on Sunday night. The drive from the Paddock of the Istanbul Circuit to the port of Pendik takes almost a half an hour, and on Sunday night the place looked like a ghost town. Even though the weather was not what you would expect it to be in a country by the Mediterranean Sea in May, the drivers’ were still satisfied. It did not even rain. There was only a slight drizzle every now and then, no high temperatures which is perfect weather for truck racing. Every single round, though, felt a little bit too long. If there had been a shorter connection the drivers would have even been happier. As mentioned in the previous reports the whole Istanbul Park is simply enormous. In the Formula 1 everything has huge measures, because this race track was initially designed for the Formula 1. Other than that it does not seem like that there is a lot going on at this place. When we arrived there were still results from the Formula 1 race from May 6th 2011 displayed in the showcase. And then the FIA European Truck Racing Championship came, where everything is more easygoing and family - like. In principle the Istanbul Park is a bit too big for the FIA ETRC. 15,000 spectators came to see the first race of the European Championship in Turkey. Contrary to first news, there were not only invited guests, but also fans that bought their tickets on their own for 15 € for the whole weekend. Even if this amount of people got a bit lost in the paddock and on the bleachers the organizers were extremely satisfied. That may be, because in the paddock there had been discussions that at the last DTM race there were only 5,000 spectators. It seems that Turkey actually is not that crazy about motor sports, which appears odd concerning all the young – Schumi’s/Vettel’s/Alonso’s etc. racing through the big city of Istanbul with 15 Mio. people. The prospects for the Istanbul Park, however, look everything but rosy. It is said that the ownership has not been fully regulated and that bankruptcy cases of different people involved do not make it easy for the organizer to bring a new race series to the Park. That is why they were only able to work on the last arrangements relatively late. In fact, the first race of the FIA ETRC 2012 was on a knife – edge. The title holder Jochen Hahn came to Istanbul perfectly prepared. The MAN – driver continued exactly where he had stopped last year and it even seemed as if he was playing with his rivals. Even if it looks like that Hahn has to be satisfied “only” with placing 3rd, like in the last race on Sunday, he has “the luck of the hard - working man”. Antonio Albacete and Markus Oestreich, who were ahead of him, got in each other’s way, giving the perfect chance to Hahn, who could easily pass them and let him win for the fourth time in four races. While Albacete has won at least against the favorite from Altensteig in the SuperPole, the MKR – Renault – strategist Mario Kress with his team Adam Lacko, Markus Bösiger and Markus Oestreich seem to be a bit helpless. It would be more than stunning if the big shot from Rheinau (who lives in Czech Republic now) would come up with a great idea until the race in Misano this weekend. On the other hand, isn’t Misano the race track where Bösiger drove everyone in the first race of the season with his MKR – Renault into the ground? Maybe that is a good sign for Kress and his whole team.
Impressions:
