Preliminary Report for Jamara

06. June 2012In order to avoid confusion for those who do not know yet that there will be two races of the FIA Truck Racing Championship this year, no, we are not 4 months too early - this is the preliminary report for the race in June at the traditional race track at the gates of Madrid. Even though many people are still not happy with this, almost everyone is going to come – including Markus Bösiger. Prior to the race the Swiss had already announced to race only once in Jamara and that would be in October. Since the race weekend in Misano had been extremely unsatisfactory for the guy from Langenthal – on Saturday breakdowns due to technical problems right at the start, on Sunday the disqualification during the SuperPole (in the view of the MKR team an unjustified decision) and the Bösiger’s bitter realization that his Renault simply can’t keep up with the good drivers ahead – the champion from 2007 stated in an interview that he will not be attending the upcoming race in Jamara. However, the head of MKR, Mario Kress is not only the most successful manager of all times, but also a very experienced motivator. During the last few days the team worked for 20 hours a day, there had been numerous test laps and he wants to keep testing his truck in Jamara so that MKR-Renault will be in the position to compete with the seemingly superior MAN from Jochen Hahn (GER) and Antonio Albacete (ESP), said Bösiger. If Ellen Lohr will be at the starting line has also not yet been decided. The German had significant problems with the engine control unit of her tankpool24-Mercedes in Misano when she had her debut. Using the one that had been supplied with the truck it soon became apparent that the truck was lacking horsepower. With an other engine control unit she was suddenly 4 seconds faster each lap, but there were problems with black smoke. The head of the team, Markus Bauer, said that they are still working on this problem and that it remains to be seen if they are able to fix this problem until the race in Jamara. It is still not clear if the three drivers from Frankie OXXO Truck Racing Team, Alexander Lvov (RUS), Norbert Kiss (HUN) and Frankie Vojtisek (CZE) will be celebrating their debut in Jamara. Concerning the buildup of the MAN race truck they were out of luck. At the beginning of the week OXXO announced that Kiss will be at the starting line in Madrid. However, he only mentioned the Hungarian, but not the other two drivers.
But it will certainly not be a short entry list. The race in Jamara counts toward the Spanish National Championship. Besides FIA-driver Albacete, there are 10 other drivers from the Iberian Peninsula registered for race-by-race. The Belgian Jean-Pierre Blaise and the Frenchman Olivier Bouzige (both Renault) are missing among the FIA-drivers listed on the preliminary entry-list. That also means that from the third team of the championship there will be no driver at the starting line in Jamara. Even if Lohr, Lvov and Vojtisek will not compete there will still be 23 race trucks at the starting line. The bleachers and the paddocks might not be as crowded as we are used to. For a long time the final race of the Championship took place in Jamara. Since then there are high standards that apply, especially regarding the presentation of the teams and sponsors. Those, however, didn’t apply to Albacete, Spain. That’s why most teams and sponsors did not include this in their budget plans. Especially the Madrid – based mineral oil company, Cepsa, has so far always planned a big event for their grand prix at home for all of their invited guests. Due to the difficult financial situation in Spain, Cepsa does probably not want to manage this financial burden twice this year. No matter if the crowds will be bustling around in the paddocks or not; things will definitely hot up. According to the weather forecast it will be partly cloudy and above 30 C° (above 85 F°).

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