Misano Preliminary Report

26. May 2016Misano - The Misano round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship on Italy’s Adriatic coast has always had the special atmosphere you’d expect at a top-rated holiday resort. What’s more, this being the tourist pre-season, there’s an abundance of very reasonably priced hotel accommodation on offer. And so anyone with an inclination towards truck racing is always looking to make an early arrival in Misano. The atmosphere is laid-back, and if you’re the kind that’s up to more than just lazing on the sand, there’s plenty of time for a stroll through Rimini or a shopping excursion to San Marino next door. The weather’s always been fantastic - with the exception of last year, when it poured buckets the entire weekend.
This time, though, it’s fabulous summer weather again like we’re so used to, plenty of sunshine, temperatures upwards of 25 degrees, and not a drop of rain. On that last point, we concede, not all the forecasters are in total agreement - at least not for Sunday.
After the caprices of the weather at the season-opener in Spielberg – snow, sun, and heavy rainfall in short order – Misano is something to really look forward to for the truck racers and their travelling fans. Those of you who were at the opening round of the Coupe de France Camions at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet will know just how much more fun it is to race – and spectate – in pleasant weather.
Frenchman Dominique Orsini plans to be at the start here in his Mercedes, which would make it four trucks from Le Castellet on the entry list. In addition to truck race veteran Orsini there’s also Anthony Janiec (MAN), the quadruple victor from Paul Ricard’s Lion teammate Jean-Claude Labadie (Renault), and Jérémy Robineau in the MAN he shares with his brother Thomas.
But pretty much all of the attention will be on two other entrants.
Steffi Halm will be making her first outing here in her new MAN. Her participation in the 2016 season was only decided rather late, after the MAN in which she drove up a storm in the second half of last season was sold to a team in the British championship.
For ever so long René Reinert, whose team had run that truck, wasn’t sure whether he himself would race a complete season. And Jochen Hahn, in whose workshops all these trucks originate, had planned to re/build three trucks - one for himself, one for Reinert, and one a showtruck for events and trade fairs.
In the end it took just one long conversation between two gentlemen and a lady for the putative showtruck to be repurposed for serious racing. Then there just wasn’t enough time left till Spielberg, which is why Steffi Halm will only have a say in the proceeding from Misano onwards.
There’s no less anticipation over the appearance here of Norbert Kiss, even though last year’s champ did race in Spielberg. The fact is, his new Mercedes race truck wasn’t really ready in the latest specification for the first round, with parts missing owing to supplier delays. Nevertheless, the Hungarian’s performance at the Red Bull Ring far exceeded what his tankpool24 team expected of him in the circumstances. The truck has since been improved, as has Kiss’s teammate André Kursim’s. The young German was only a visitor to Spielberg but didn’t race.
All in all, the racing in Misano won’t only be about reliving wonderful memories of early summers past; in a sense it’s going to be like a second season-opener.
It will be awfully exciting to see – at speed – how changes and further developments to the trucks take effect, because many teams were upset at just how widely their results in Spielberg differed from dry Saturday to soaking Sunday. You can bet some of the technicians put their brains and the four-week interval to extraordinarily good use!

Impressions: