I love Schnitzel.........and Austria.

If you like eating schnitzel, Austria is a great place to be. But it is not the only reason I am here as the WTCC circus has arrived and we are setting up the garages in one of the prettiest places that you can have a race. The Salzburgring has a wonderful restuarant and inbetween unloading the trucks and all of the equipment, we have been getting fat on....SCHNITZEL.
Unfortunately for some of the Truckies, the journey here has been spoilt by more tyre punctures. I can,t help thinking that these two teams should look at how they are loading their trailers and how the weight is being distributed among the axles. They had problems last year and they have had problems this year. It may just be bad luck, it also seems a little suspicious.                        

Some of the trucks arrived last week as they came straight from Hungary and have been parked up. Other teams left their trucks in Hungary so they could repair the cars at the circuit, but they arrived today. A few teams decided that they had to go back to their factories but by Thursday afternoon, we are all in the paddock, getting ready for the race this weekend.
DHL and Weitracon have been spotted in the paddock and they are here to discuss plans for the container shipping, when we start racing in Argentina, USA, etc, etc. And also to help us with plans for the first WTCC race in Russia. My team has still not decided our exact plans but we are close to making a final decision. I will keep you all informed and I know that I will have so much to write about the Russia trip, so please keep reading my blog.
The internet is not loving me at the moment and is being very slow so I will post another update very soon. Once again, I shall leave you with a few pictures that I have taken from a very beautiful race track in Austria, THE SALZBURGRING.

Roal unload one of their cars

All Inkl team get busy.

A big "thumbs up" from the Banboo guys

FIA set up the scrutineering bay.

A trip to Austria and a few personal thoughts.

A last minute change of plans means that we are packed up and leaving the Hungaroring, on the Sunday evening, after the race. I want to try and avoid the traffic around the M0, which is the motorway ring road around Budapest. Also, there will be no other trucks due to the Sunday driving ban. But I have my piece of paper which allows me to drive and I am going to take advantage of it. To drive a big truck out of the paddock, when people are packing up, requires some extra help from my team. There is very little room to manoeuvre and I need their eyes to help me avoid having an unnecessary accident. Once I am safely out of the paddock, I drive onto the motorway and 3 hours later, I arrive at the Austria/Hungary border. Parking the truck is easy and the M1 Paprika Hotel is my resting place for the night. 25 euros for a bed and breakfast in this super little hotel is a bargain. Leaving on the Sunday evening has been a good choice.

Somewhere in Hungary.

From the border to the Salzburgring is approximately 300km so I set off with the rain falling heavily. Traffic around Vienna is slow but I am moving and the rain decides to stop. The Go Box, which we must use to pay the Austrian truck toll, tells me that I need to put some more money on it. Luckily, there is a big service station just before I turn off the motorway towards the race track. I take the Go Box into the services, pay some more money, and I am ok to continue my journey. We had telephoned the Salzburgring to let them know that we were on our way and when I arrive, I have to wait a short while before I am let through the gates, across the race track and into the paddock. Job done and definitely easier than in previous years. I think that, in future, I will always leave the Hungaroring on the Sunday evening.

Lada tyre man.

A lot of my spare time is spent on the internet, writing my blog, reading news and generally surfing the web. I am always finding something of interest and I recently found a news article on the dangers of driving.
You might view your daily or weekly commute to work as nothing more than a routine part of your day, but new research suggests it is fraught with danger. The hidden dangers of commuting to work have been highlighted by various governments. As my job involves driving, technically, I am commuting to work. I risk injury 32 times a week and 0830 hours is the most dangerous time for me to be on the road. Government figures state that I take 1600 risks which could result in serious injury to myself or others.
Personally, I have not had any accidents for a long time and my driving licence is clean. No speeding fines or anything else. As we drive in so many different countries, I find it very interesting to see how peoples driving habits differ in all the different countries. Some countries are just crazy. China is unbelievable for bad driving habits and there are apparently over 350 deaths, every day, on their roads. Spain has about 15 deaths every day. But danger could be waiting for me around the next corner. The perils of driving so many kilometres around Europe and also when we drive hire cars at the fly away races puts me in a very high risk category, probably more than a racing driver. Unfortunately, my high risk job does not pay high risk wages.

When I started my blog, there was nothing being written about the logistics of getting race cars and equipment to the track. Now, I am finding that even some of the teams are including pictures of the trucks and trailers as they race and test at tracks around the world. Maybe my blog has made them realise that the Truckies are an integral part of any team. It is amazing how many team members have no real understanding of the Truckies job. They may wave goodbye to us when we leave the factory and the next time they see us at a track, somewhere in Europe, the cars and equipment have magically come out of the truck and been placed neatly in the garage.
So I am very pleased that we are now being recognised by the teams and if they post only a couple of pictures on their Facebook or Twitter sites, it is a more than they were doing a few years ago.
Never forget the Truckies!!!

Keys to all of the garages,Hungaroring

I Try To Help

For some of the new Truckies in the WTCC this year, I tried to help them by emailing the best route from the Slovakiaring to the Hungaroring. This included where we could return the Slovakian toll boxes and where to buy the Hungarian truck tax. My help was appreciated but for two Truckies it has caused them a slight problem. When they went to get their deposit back for the toll box, the garage said that they did not have enough money to pay them. Luckily they have found somebody who is driving back to Slovakia, next week, and they will return the toll boxes for them. The deposit money is 50 Euros for each box. The Slovakian truck toll system has only been working for two years but I think you can see that they still have some problems that must be resolved.
One of the teams was only 50 kilometres from the Hungaroring circuit when a brake line on the trailer broke. This caused a total loss of all the air which operates the brakes. The result of this was for the trailer brakes lock up, causing all of the tyres to skid on the road, make a very big amount of smoke and the Truckie was lucky to keep control. The large amount of smoke that was generated actually helped him. Some people in a factory near the motorway, thought that the truck had caught fire and immediately called the fire service and the police. When they arrived and found that there was no fire or danger, they helped call a local truck garage to come and repair the trailer. The value of having someone who can speak the language is invaluable and it definitely helped him on this occasion.
We are all still talking about the impending trip to Russia but we need somemore information regarding our entry point in to Russia and the customs procedures before we can confirm all of our travel plans.

 Hungaroring paddock on thursday

When we leave Hungary, some of the teams will want to drive on Sunday evening. As there is a ban on all trucks driving on the motorways until 2200 hours, Sunday evening, we have been given written permission that we are exempt from this law. Not all circuits help the Truckies when we encounter this problem in other countries. But the Hungaroring certainly do. THANK YOU HUNGARY.

Special permission to drive

A very slow 224 kilometres.

Yokohama truck follows us as we leave the Agip petrol station in Slovakia

We leave Slovakia on the Monday morning and drive to the Agip garage, near Medvidov. We have to return the Slovakia truck toll box and get our 50 Euro deposit back. Last year, I mentioned how much time it takes to process all the paperwork and this year was no different. The total cost for driving our truck in Slovakia was 7.75 Euros, but the cost to print out the 10 pages of A4 paper must cost the government much more!!
It is just a short journey to the Hungarian border and when we arrive, the police direct us to the weighbridge. After the truck has been weighed, we stop to buy the Hungarian truck vignette. When I go to the small office that I have used before, I am told that they no longer sell the vignette here so we have to get back in the truck and drive another 6km to a petrol station where we can buy the tax. 15000 Florins for a 10 day truck vignette and we are on our way to the the Hungaroring.
We drive into the town off Gyor but have to take a diversion around the side of the town as trucks are not allowed into the town centre. From here, it should be a steady drive on the Hungarian motorways, to the race track.
NO SUCH LUCK FOR US.
As we reach Budapest, again we are forced to take a diversion around the city due to weight restrictions and some very low bridges. The M0 motorway has been under reconstruction for the last 4 years and is still not finished. With a combination of roadworks and an accident blocking part of the motorway, it is a very long and slow journey for 25km. When we finally arrive at the Hungaroring, it has taken us 6 hours to drive 224km. SLOW, SLOW, SLOW.

Entering the town of Gyor,  notice the "NO TRUCKS" on the sign on the right.

We ask if we can park the trucks outside our garage at the Hungaroring as some teams have done already. But our team is suffering from poor communications and we leave them on at a separate paddock area. As I write this, we have just received a phone call to go and move the trucks to our team garages. In this age of mobile telephones, email and even talking in person, we can still make a simple job into a difficult one.
At the back of my hotel is a very large banner with pictures of famous Hungarians. I think that the Hungarian driver, Norbert Michelisz, will soon need to be added to this as we are again expecting a huge crowd attendance to cheer on their hero.

Pictures of famous Hungarians.

Someone wants to be a Truckie !

Three Yokohama trucks lined up

Hello from sunny Slovakia.
Hopefully I now have a new reader of my blog as I was talking to the WTCC driver, Alex Macdowall, and he has just started to apply for his LGV driving licence. One of his sponsors is the UK company ECM (Vehicle Delivery Service) Ltd and I guess he feels that it is important that he can drive a truck.

JAS Honda unloading last thursday

The process to apply for a licence in the UK involves tests in a classroom before you can even start driving a truck. The first part of the licence means that you can drive a truck, up to a maximum weight of 17.5 tonnes. Once this part of the test is complete, you can then move up to a fully articulated truck, such as the race trucks and trailers that we drive. The cost of all this is approximately 1600 Euros.







You can look at Alex,s sponsor by clicking on this link.
http://www.ecmvds.co.uk/english/index.htm 

                                                                        Copyright Photo4

Good luck with your training and I hope your need for speed will not be lost when you have to drive a truck at a maximum of 90kmh. And do not drive over the plastic cones when you are driving your truck in the test.

All Inkl.com team cars

The paddock is very busy at the Slovakiaring as we have all of the WTCC and ETCC trucks, inside the paddock area. Some of us will be leaving on Monday and making the short trip to Hungaroring whilst other teams will stay in Slovakia, for a few days, to repair their race cars.

PB Racing truck unloading

Eastern Europe brings sadness and happiness for some Italians.

Spanish police stop us near Burgos, Spain.

It has been a busy time for me since leaving Morocco. The journey form Algeciras, Spain was a long one and we also had a little bit of trouble with the Spanish Guardia Civil police. They wanted to check the documents from the truck and see where we were going to. With a few Spanish words from us and a smile, we were free to continue our journey.
Some of the trucks were heading back to the UK from Bilbao, Spain and  the rest of us were spreading ourselves around Europe. One German team had a puncture on their way home from Morocco but everyone else seems to have had a trouble free journey back.

RML catch the ferry to the UK

                                                                       

We have been busy testing since Morocco and I have have used all of my truck driving hours so I must take a break. My work collegues have taken over the truck driving duties and I join up with them today at the Slovakiaring circuit.
It is 25C and the temperature and weather is looking good for the race weekend.

With the ETCC race as well, this weekend, there are alot of Yokohama tyres which will need fitting and a truck was in Slovakia to deliver the tyres and put them into the garages. Any tyres that they could not put in the garages were loaded into a truck. Belloto tyre services from Italy who support the ETCC, will be very busy as the ETCC race is expecting a 28 car entry list.

I hope you can look at my latest video that I have posted and keep checking back at my blog to get the latest information on the WTCC Truckies.
Here are a few more pictures from today at the Slovakiaring. One Italian team had a nasty puncture before they had even left Italy which has damaged the side of their race trailer. But it was also a happy time for another Italian team now that they have now bought a new Iveco Stralis, 450HP tractor unit.

Italian sadness

Italian happiness.

Michelisz car being prepared on thursday morning.

Visual TV camera equipment before it is fitted into the cars.

A Trip to the Mont Blanc Tunnel

After the 1999 fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel, our trucks must go through a regisration process, for safety reasons, before we drive the 10km towards the entrance to the tunnel. Here is my video as I drive to the WTCC race at Monza, Italy 2013.
It costs us approximately 450 euros for a return ticket, or 300 euros for a one way ticket.
Enjoy the scenery and welcome to a little piece of "my world".

Harlem Shake........PB Racing style

Watch this and be happy with me. What a fun bunch of guys away from the race track.
I know and work with some of these guys. PB Racing team rock.........

Pictures from the last two races

RML trucks being repaired in a French garage before the Monza race

View from above at Marrakech

BMW Truckie wearing a fez

Moroccan police at Marrakech circuit

Driving back to Tangiers port

Parking the truck before we go through to the x-ray scanner

Worth more than gold

JAS/Honda leave the scanner area and head for the ferry boat

Auto GP truck in Tangier port

RML drive onto the ferry from Spain to the UK

Bamboo truck inside the boat.

Destination Spain.

It is 0130 hours when our ferry finally reaches Algeciras in Spain and the journey from Marrakech has taken a total of 21 hours.The Truckies slowly and carefully drive their race trucks up the loading ramp and onto the quayside. A queue has formed and while we wait to complete the passport checks, we can finally relax. A short drive to the secure parking area and a good nights sleep ends our very long day.

I have now been to four WTCC races in Marrakech and I am fed up with it. I am appaled with the abysmal hotel staff and lack of customer care, the blatant overcharging, the short changing of money, the dual pricing system that the taxis seem to employ, the security staff who were caught stealing chairs from our garage at the weekend, and the corruption in the port by police and customs officials.
Two of the Truckies experienced problems at their hotel last year when they tried to leave their hotel and it happened again this year at the same place. They had checked out of their hotel at 0300 hours on the monday morning to go to the circuit and had taken their truck to the hotel so they would not have to mess around waiting for a taxi at such an early time. When they drove up to the hotel security barrier, they were accused of not paying their hotel, WHICH THEY HAD DONE, a massive argument occurred. Despite the security calling the reception to verify that the hotel bill had been paid, THEY STILL REFUSED TO LET THE TRUCKIES LEAVE THE HOTEL!!
It took the intervention of a member of the Eurosport TV crew who moved one of the security staff to one side and pushed the button to raise the barrier which allowed the Truckies to drive out of the hotel and leave. He knows who he is and the Truckies have asked me to say thank you. A few beers will be coming your way when they see you at the next race.

And to the owners of The Kenzi Menara Palace, Marrakech, you are now officially named and shamed.

Despite paying my hotel bill the night before, I also experienced similar problems when I tried to leave the same hotel about an hour later. We stay in hotels all over the world and I have never been to a country where I encounter and hear of so many problems about the hotels and from so people.

Parking the trucks before we enter the customs area.

When myself and seven other trucks arrive at Tangier Med Port at 1300 hours on monday, we are met by the man from Wietracon. They had helped us to gain entry to Morocco so much quicker than in previous years and we need them again to get us through the police and customs procedures. There is no doubt that the port system is corrupt but Wietracon have employed a local company with knowledge of the police and port officials and I can personally say that the Truckies felt much safer and we were well informed of which procedures we must complete to enable us to get through the port and onto a ferry to Spain. Unfortunately, Tangiers Med Port still allow people to enter the port area who are just there to extort money from the many people in cars, trucks and buses.
It still takes us seven hours before we are on the boat but we are all happy. As I write this, there are still Truckies that I have not spoken to but from my own experience, I feel confident that they will not have encountered any problems as our shipping agent has been working hard, non stop. Some of the race trucks will be leaving on a boat to Italy, as this is more convenient for them, whilst the rest of us will be going to Spain.

Auto GP truckie earns his money, reversing onto the boat.

The problem of people trying to climb underneath the trucks whilst we are waiting in the various areas within the port has not been as bad as before. The port has employed more security staff, many of them with dogs, better camera surveillance and higher fences but two of our trucks still ended up with "unwanted passengers". You can read more about Morocco and its problems if you read my older blog posts from April last year.
 http://racetruckie.blogspot.com.es/2012_04_01_archive.html
On the sunday before the WTCC races had started, one of the Spanish teams needed to call out a truck technician to sort out an electrical fault which meant that the engine would not run properly. After much head scratching and connecting a laptop to the trucks "brain" they managed to trace the fault to a simple fuse. Our modern trucks are so reliant on electrics and electronics that diagnosing and repairing the fault can be very time consuming business, even when the repair is a quick one.

Truck problems for Seat in Marrakech

I must make a special mention to Rob from LED Screen Hire who was in Marrakech again. He supplies and puts up the very large TV screens around the circuit. I spotted him limping around the paddock but still working hard after he needed over 50 stitches in his leg due to an accident whilst working in Nigeria. Get well soon mate!
I could write several thousand more words about this part of the WTCC calender but I have written too much already about a place that I would rather forget and never have to go to again.


Once again, the internet speed is preventing me from including more pictures and I will do a photo update very soon.