Preview of the first round at Misano

22.05.14
This weekend on the 24th and 25th of May, the FIA European Truck Racing Championship will start in Misano, Italy. The circuit is located in a nice area, close to the Adriatic ocean.

The following things changed and are worth knowing:

After the Czech team, MKR decided to quit its racing commitment, they sold their trucks to other teams, so we will still be able to see the trucks on the circuits, but with new designs.

One truck was bought by the French Team 14 for the Portuguese driver José Rodrigues and another one went to the Portuguese VTR team, in order to be used by the driver José Téodosio.

So in total we will have three drivers with the first name, José!

José Souza, the owner of the VTR team bought the old truck from Team 14. He will drive it this season. It will be his first time in truck racing.

One new French team will enter the championship: Truckdrive JRT. The team has two MAN trucks, driven by Ellen Lohr and Anthony Janiec. Misano will be the first time they will run these trucks.

The driver Markus Bösiger went back to the Truck Sport Bernau team. Apparently this team is a good base for him: He already achieved promising results at the tests in Jarama and Most. Pay attention, since the Swiss will have a good chance to win this year!

Another change has to do with Adam Lacko. In winter he signed a contract with the Buggyra team, a team that will be 100 % Czech with two Freightliners and David Vršecky as second driver. We can be sure that they will make a great show on the track!

The Spanish driver, Javier Mariezcurrena and the Belgian driver, Jean-Pierre Blaise will share one Lion Truck Racing MAN truck. Javier Mariezcurrena will take part in all races in the South, team-mate Jean-Pierre Blaise will be present in the North. Steffi Halm will drive for Lion Truck Racing throughout the complete season of the European championship.

One new driver will come into the championship: the Portuguese Eduardo Rodrigues, the father of José. In the years before he took part in Spanish championship races.

Jochen Hahn would like to defend his title, but Antonio Albacete is really motivated to win the championship, too.

The two drivers of the Hungarian OXXO team, Norbert Kiss and Benedek Major will also fight for a good position in the front! Last year the two pilots accomplished the positions 4 and 10 on the overall standings.

The German, René Reinert made good progress. This year he will participate at the team championship together with Jochen Hahn. It will be really intensive!

To complete the list, Frankie Vojtíšek will participate with his MAN once more, Erwin Kleinnagelvoort with his new Scania equipped with an MAN engine, André Kursim will drive a new Mercedes truck from the Tankpool 24 team and Dominique Orsini sticks to his Mercedes with a new engine.

Gerd Körber will only be present in some races with a brand-new IVECO featuring a very nice design. We will see him in Misano.

More than 20 drivers will take part in the first race driving trucks of different makes: we will see MAN, Renault, Freightliner, Iveco and Scania on the field.

This season promises to be an exciting one and it’s very difficult to predict who will be the 2014 champion in the end!

More information will follow after this event!