Tests in Most begin

14. April 2014Most - Some of the teams that will race in the 2014 FIA European Truck Racing Championship meet at Autodrom Most today and tomorrow for what was originally intended to be a final test outing before they were shipped to Istanbul for the season-opening race there — but that’s been called off. Now there are a good seven weeks till the start of the season in Misano, on Italy’s Adriatic coast. Some of the racers in Most last tested only two weeks ago at the Circuito del Jarama near Madrid or at Nogaro in the south of France. All eyes are on the new Ivecos of the Schwaben Truck Team from Ulm, which get their first shakedown here at the hands of German Gerd Körber and his Austrian teammate Markus Altenstrasser.
The test programme here was initiated by Buggyra, which is based around 90 km away in Roudnice. The Czechs will naturally be out in force, with their complete armada consisting of David Vršecký and Adam Lacko.
MAN is represented rather strongly too. The official tests in Jarama may be over, but Germans Jochen Hahn and René Reinert, whose race truck is built and serviced by Hahn’s mechanics, and even Lutz Bernau with his new Swiss pilot Markus Bösiger, are sparing no opportunity to test their machines in near-race environments. The track conditions in Spain weren’t exactly optimal, but the weather here in the Czech Republic, and the forecast for tomorrow, hold out significantly better prospects.
This morning, however, there were first of all over and over again strong showers and violent storm gusts.

Impressions: