Fewer hurdles remain in the lane to the start

02. June 2020Despite all the COVID-19 imponderables, the truck racers are eager to get on with even the truncated programme we’ve got now. That’s notwithstanding the fact that it’s going to be a stretch for most teams, who’ve seen massive cuts to their budgets.
The prospects sure aren’t rosy, but optimism ... dies hard. With nearly three months to go before the opener in Most, there are 18 full-season pilots already on the entry list. Two of them, Eduardo Rodrigues and his grandson José Eduardo, will take turns in the cockpit of their #38 truck. José Rodrigues, competing in his own #14 machine, completes the multigenerational MAN trio from Portugal.
With nine trucks, MAN is the strongest-represented make in the field. And Germans make up the largest contingent of pilots, with Iveco quartet Jochen Hahn, Steffi Halm, René Reinert, and André Kursim, MAN duo Sascha Lenz and Clemens Hecker, and Steffen Faas with his factory-fresh tankpool24-Scania.
Frenchmen Téo Calvet and Anthony Janiec were teammates last year at Lion Truck Racing; now the Calvet cub switches breeds to Buggyra, while Janiec stays put with the pride.
There’s more poder del león from Spain, with thrice-champion Antonio Albacete for the Anglo-Bavarian T Sport Bernau squad and his contemporary Luis Recuenco.
Jamie Anderson is the sole warrior so far from the British isles, that late great bastion of truck racing.
Let’s not forget, too, dogged Dutch privateer Erwin Kleinnagelvoort (Scania) and ex-champs Norbert Kiss (HUN), who returns to marque with which he won his two titles, and Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra).
We presume most of the above will make the trip to Most this month for their first meaningful tests this year, two months after they were originally to have met for the purpose.