Le Mans Preliminary Report
21. September 2017Le Mans - Rarely will the 24 Heures Camions have earned its moniker more than at the 8th round of the 2017 FIA European Truck Racing Championship at Circuit Bugatti in Le Mans. The accent, naturally, is not on the “24 Heures” – there’s no event in Le Mans that’s not connected to 24 Hours – but on the “Camions”. This is the one weekend on the calendar when all you see on the circuit is trucks – race trucks, any number of them, and elaborately decorated showtrucks in their never-ending ranks.
A total of 16 race trucks are registered for the FIA event, 12 of the full-season cohort and four race-by-race entries. Portuguese Eduardo Rodrigues and his MAN are both in Le Mans, but the truck will have – as in Zolder – his grandson José Eduardo at the wheel. He’ll be joined by another Portuguese race-by-race pilot, Manuel Rodrigues Gonçalves in a Volvo, Dutchman Cees Zandbergen (Scania), and Englishman Shane Brereton (MAN).
There’ll also be a round of the Coupe de France Camions, from which the 24 Heures Camions originated, which makes it an event with an older tradition even than the Truck Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.
The races of the French championship will have 26 trucks, the maximum number that Circuit Bugatti presently allows. And since the 24 Heures Camions have long proved an irresistible attraction for the British, there’ve always been teams from the Isles racing here as guests in the French championship. Since there isn’t a single slot available this time, the Brits will – as they did in Nogaro back in July – have their own separate British-rules races under the “British Truck Challenge”.
Wherever you look in Le Mans, all you see is trucks. As for the decorated trucks, you’ve got to see them to believe the very special place the French give them. They have their own separate paddock inside the expansive estate of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), which will once again be among the biggest attraction for the throngs of fans. When they have completed their parade at around 8 pm Saturday, the pit straight will burst alive with shows, mechanic competitions, and the
Épreuve Gymkhana, something similar to the “Go-and-Stop” contests at the Nürburgring – all typical fare on a truck racing weekend in France, the many thousands of exuberant fans heightening the carnival atmosphere.
But the celebrations will be far from over yet; the 24 Heures really lives up to its name after 12, all-night concerts and parties livening the landscape till the break of dawn.
The FIA teams and pilots won’t be a part of the revelry, though – they’ll be up and going so early in the morning as at no other circuit on the calendar – at 8:15 am. In seasons past, depending on the weather, it could be still dark. Indeed, the organisers at Le Mans have always been at odds with the weather – or vice versa. So this year they’ve elected to advance the 24 Heures Camions by three weeks. The weather prospects are ideal, and everyone is hoping the forecasts hold.
For the first time this decade the finale of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship will not be in Le Mans, but two weeks later in Jarama.
Impressions:
