Friday in Navarra
06. June 2014Los Arcos - The first teams arrived at the Circuito de Navarra for the second round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship on Wednesday itself. It appeared then that the weather wasn’t going to be quite as stormy this time as it was last year, although it would be hot. But Friday has turned out to be exceptionally windy, so that you can hardly feel the 30° temperatures forecast for the rest of the weekend. Even so, copious use of suntan cream is in order. The circuit, situated almost 500 metres above mean sea level, is set amid rolling hills and there’s almost nothing topographic to stand in the way of the southeasterlies.
The nearest habitation Los Arcos, a little village of 2,000 people, was once only familiar to pilgrims on the Way of St James, but the descent of hundreds of truckrace fans will now “shatter” the peace of this predominantly agrarian community for the second time.
Twenty one trucks in total will take the start after Czech Frankie Vojtíšek (MAN) pulled out at the last moment. There’s a fair bit of anticipation over the début of the new tankpool24 Mercedes. But the truck has only been driven a few laps in anger so far, and so hasn’t really been put to the test yet, and even MB Motorsport is playing down expectations. The engine is carried over from last season; only the chassis is new. The team unfortunately just hasn’t had enough opportunity to run tests on setup, so taxi drives for the press, which entail a one-hour practice session immediately after, would have been very welcome. An added challenge is the layout of the track, on which tankpool24 pilot André Kursim hasn’t raced yet.
But the young German has company. Even for such an experienced driver as his compatriot Ellen Lohr (MAN), and for a few others in the field besides, the Circuito de Navarra is uncharted territory. The first opportunity they get to familiarise themselves with the circuit is at 9 am Saturday.
A few of the race trucks made a showing on Thursday evening in Pamplona not far away, to drum up interest in the races at Navarra.
Impressions:
