11 or 12 races in 2013?

18. September 2012After the race weekend in Most there was a meeting from the FIA Truckracing Commission in Geneva. Those that attended turned out to be rather disappointed in personal conversations. Lutz Bernau even publicly showed his disappointment. It had actually been expected that there would finally be an official comment given regarding the rumors about the promoter of the series. However, the FIA seems to want to maintain a low profile on this topic.
The information given about the races in the upcoming season were more specific. Still, there were no real surprises – except maybe one. For a long time it has been clear that the former “Österreichring”, the “A1-Ring” and now “Red Bull Ring” is interested again to host races of the FIA European Truckracing Championship. Getting Christof Gerlach on board, who is very familiar with the truckracing business due to his long-term work in organizing the Truck Grand Prix at the Nürburgring and also has many connections, was a really good idea. That is why Gerlach attended the TGP at the Nürburgring and the races in Most in order to promote the race at the “Red Bull Ring”. Generally there are no doubts that after a 10-year break there will be Truckracing in Austria again.
The teams’ worries are that it will be 12 races next season, instead of the 10. In Geneva at the meeting of the FIA-Truckracing Commission they introduced a first draft of the calendar. According to this calendar, the season would start on Pentecost weekend (18th and 19th of May) in Misano and one week later would be the race in Istanbul. The first weekend in June was the usual Albacete-appointment, which had been cancelled this year and replaced with a second race in Jamara. Twice on the same race track in one year – the drivers did not approve of this. New on the agenda is El Circuito de Navarra in the North of Spain, but no sooner than the last weekend in June. 14 days before this there will be the races in Nogaro. The usual height of the season will be from July 12th to the 14th : The TGP at the Nürburgring. Two weeks later will be the races in Russia at the Smolenskring. The Red Bull Ring also applied for a race in August. The season would continue with the races in Most and Zolder on the same weekends as this year. On October 5th and 6th will be the races in Le Mans and one week later in Jamara. Concerning the final race the Frenchmen and Spaniards would have switched again. Including the Red Bull Ring, which does not yet have a specific date it would be 11 races in the end, because Donington had not even been mentioned in the draft at all. At this point it is not clear if England simply forgot to apply on time or if there are actually not interested anymore. Many truckracing insiders are still not sure if in the end there will be 12 races in 2013. The FIA World Council will make the last decision in their meeting – and there have been surprises before.