13th June, 0730 hours, Travemunde, Germany. Our ferry boat has arrived from Latvia and we can be happy that our long journey to Moscow and back again is nearly over. We have a 20 hour drive before we can finally get home. But at least we know that we will have nice roads to drive on, not like the roads in Russia. The severe climate of Russia makes road conditions extremely
hazardous. Everything depends on the time of the year. In autumn and
winter the roads are severely damaged by rains, snow and frost. In
spring they are being repaired. And summer is the only time of the year
when their quality improves to some extent. However,
roads create a constant problem in Russia and make driving a truck
basically a stressful experience. Financing of Russian roads is pretty
poor too and the Russians that I spoke to told me about the widespread corruption amongst the road construction companies.
The Sunday evening, after the race, and we are amongst the first group of trucks to leave Moscow Raceway. This race track has very good facilities and it is like an oasis amongst the countryside around it. There are no hotels close to the racetrack and some teams have had to travel 100km, every day, to come to work. The security to get into the track is a little daunting for us Westerners. Metal detectors, security and police personnel and bag searches. But we are leaving all of this behind as we drive away into the evening sunshine. We drive for 4 hours and when darkness descends, it is time to stop as we can no longer drive see the holes in the roads. It would be nice to get out of the trucks and have a chat with the other Truckies but the mosquitoes are relentless and there are lots of them. Despite using mosquito repellent, they still want to eat us. I have never encountered so many mosquitoes and I have travelled to alot of different countries. The next morning, we drive again and arrive at the Russian border at 1300 hours. Our agent is waiting for us. I ask for some identification as I do not know who he is. He was meant to help us when we arrived in Russia but he seems to have upset the Russian customs officers and they wold not allow him in. Fortunately he is here today. I was expecting a queue of trucks at the border and the agent was going to help us to the front of the queue. There was not another truck in sight so we could proceed into the customs area. We are issued with a piece of paper and this is given a signature and a rubber stamp as we complete each section of the customs process. When we finally leave Russia, this piece of paper has 9 different signatures and stamps on it. CRAZY.
After waiting for 2 hours, it is time to go to the x-ray scanner with the truck. I am first in but then when they look for my paperwork, they seem to have lost it. I wait 30 minutes before it is found and then I can go back to the parking area and more waiting. The mosquitoes are everywhere but when the rain starts to fall, we can get wet but avoid being bitten. More waiting and after 11 hours, we can finally leave Russia and enter the Latvian customs. It has taken us longer to complete the customs process with our agent than when we had to do everything ourselves when we came into Russia.
Once again, CRAZY.
On the Latvia side, we experienced no delays and we are all done in less than an hour. As all the teams are European(except Lada), and Latvia is an EU country, the paperwork takes only a fraction of the time. A few of us did meet a Latvian customs official who was trying to make us pay "black" money for some really stupid rules that he seemed to suggest that we had broken. But we refused to pay and none of the other Latvian customs officers wanted to help him in this corrupt process.
I still cannot understand why we the race organisers cannot help us more with these customs processes. Morocco and Russia invite the teams to come and race and entertain their people. Money is made and this helps their economies. Maybe WTCC is not as important as Formula 1 or the Olympic games which will be held at Sochi in 2014, but we all help the Russian economy and because of that, we deserve to be treated a little better and given an easier time when we enter the country.
It has cost many thousands of Euros to travel to this event but I know that next year, we will do some things differently to ensure a smoother passage through customs and try to avoid the bad roads. As I write this, there are still some teams who chose to drive back through Lithuania, Poland and then to their factories in Spain and Italy. I have received no emails regarding any problems that they may have encountered on their homeward journey so I hope that "no news is good news". I think that this trip has proven the Truckies abilities and skills to drive the trucks safely. The fact that we did not have any damage to the cars or equipment in the trucks proves that we can secure the loads that we carry. And the fact that we only had a few punctures, despite the terrible road conditions, proves our driving skills.
I will leave you with some pictures of our travels.
The Riga TV and Radio Tower.
Trucks arrive at the meeting point in Latvia.
Russian customs inspect an All Inkl truck.
On the weighbridge at Russia border.
Roadworks and trucks means we have to stop.
Wiechers team setting up in Moscow.
Yokohama start to fit the tyres.
Seat team member prepares the front grille.
A picture of Lenin at a truck stop, 200km from Moscow.
Russian roads claim another victim !
RML truck an the way to Liepaja, Latvia.
Yokohama truck waits to drive onto the lift on the ferry boat.
Campos truck in Latvia.
Waiting drive to the x-ray scanner at the Russian border.
Russia has put men into space. They supposedly have more nuclear weapons than the USA. And there are more Russian car crash videos, posted on YouTube, than from any other country. BUT THEY CANT SEEM TO BUILD A DECENT ROAD.
0700 hours on a Wednesday morning and we are ready to depart for Moscow Raceway. Our convoy of 6 trucks, a van and trailer, begin our journey on what I can only describe as roads with a lot of bumps. After an hour of this, we have only managed to drive 50km and I am so glad that my truck has a seat with air suspension. The next 50km is interspersed with some even deeper holes in the road and several railway crossings that we can only drive across if we reduce our speed to 10kmh. Then, suddenly, we see a sign for the M9 motorway and as soon as we are on this motorway, the road becomes nice and smooth due to the new tarmac that has been put down. Now when I say its a motorway, I am lying. It is just a single carriageway on both sides and it is so new that they have not even marked the white lines down the middle. But it is smooth and free of bumps and holes.
SHEER BLISS.
The M9 motorway !
Unfortunately, this luxury ends as suddenly as it started and we are now driving on a mixture of broken, old road and the large holes are back again. It is proving difficult to maintain an average speed of 40-50kmh. Occasionally and seemingly in the middle of nowhere, the road transforms again and we can drive at 80kmh. This never ending change from good to bad driving conditions is frustrating. The road is is very straight and if only we could maintain a good average speed, we would be at Moscow Raceway in 8 hours.
We reach a town called Velikiye Luki and my heart sinks. This is the section of road that the other Truckies, who had set out before us, had warned me about.
IT IS DIABOLICAL.
Over 150km of dirt, dust, holes, bumps, roadworks, broken concrete and tarmac, crazy Russian car and truck drivers and some sections that are so narrow that you have to stop to let the oncoming traffic pass.
AND THIS IS THE M9 MOTORWAY.
Is it a motorway? I do not think so.
We can only drive at a maximum of 20kmh or we will break the truck or the racing cars and equipment that we are carrying. Other trucks and cars pass us on our left and right sides, as and where they can, but even they are driving at only 30-40kmh. The countryside is just forest and marsh land with absolutely nothing to distract us from this torturous road. We drive past some stalls which are selling animal furs, probably from illegal hunting or trapping. With the sun shinning and the temperature close to 30 Celsius, I am not tempted to stop and buy anything. The air outside is full of insects. mosquitoes, dragonflies and some very vicious looking flies with big spikes on their noses, I do not know what they are called but they almost seem to be attacking my truck as we drive at such a slow speed.
Animal furs and live eels for sale by the side of the road.
The skies are getting dark and rain is on its way. Thunder and lightning greet us as the road conditions seem to improve. The town of Rzhev is being barely visible through the dust storm that has started and then the rain starts. It rains so hard and the temperature drops from 30 Celsius to 19 Celsius. 20 minutes of torrential rain and wind and the sun bursts through and steam rises from the hot road surface.
AND IT IS A ROAD. A proper road
Gone are the bumps and holes and we can increase our speed to 90kmh. This is more like it !
After 13 hours of driving, the M9 motorway actually becomes 2 lanes and finally 3 lanes and
Russian lighning
we can see the race control tower and the grandstand seats of the Moscow Raceway. Our journey is about to come to an end and I am exhausted, tired and desperate to get out of the truck. I love the fact that we get chance to drive in so many different countries but Russia has strained my nerves and I do not feel very happy when I finally arrive at the race track. I see some of the other Truckies and normally I would stop, say hello, have a quick chat and just be my normal, happy self. But I can only think about having to drive back after the race, along this same road.
It has been a very, very long journey and I am glad that I have done it and so are all the other Truckies. And I know that we are all just as eager to leave.
Sorry Russia, but the journey for the Truckies has not been a good one.
Not far to drive now.
Arriving at Moscow Raceway
A lovely video is now available on YouTube. This was filmed by the TV Truckies as they made their way to Moscow. They decided to drive through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and into Russia. If my words and pictures interest you, I am sure that you will love this video. All credit for the video belongs to Marc Dubois.
The last part of our journey through Latvia was on 50km of some of the worst roads that we had encountered. Maximum driving speed was 45kmh due to the large holes and very poor road surface. At 1800 hours, we arrived at a town near the Latvia/Russia border on the Monday evening and decided to park the trucks for the night. Just as we were about to finish work for the day, we had a problem. One of the teams had a rented van and a trailer which had travelled up from Austria. One of the trailer tyres had started to disintegrate and we had to find a tyre shop so that we could get a new one. We were then told by our shipping agent that the van did not have the correct paperwork and the Russian customs would not allow it to enter their country. There was plenty of space in all the trucks to move the equipment from the van but we had to be careful that our shipping documentation was still correct.
So.......two problems solved and we had not even got to the Russian customs.
Meeting point in Latvia before we cross into Russia
The following morning was the start of of a very hot day. 30 degrees Celsius. This was a big contrast from the thunder and lightning of the previous evening. A 30km drive up to the border crossing and we began our long wait. The amount of mosquitoes that were here was amazing and everybody was using mosquito repellent or they would have bitten you and made you crazy.
Latvian police and border procedures were easy but they worked at a very slow pace.
Once that was completed, a short drive to the Russian police and customs and we started the whole process, all over again.
The last bit of English we can read before we enter Russia
Unlike alot of countries who have signs in English, this place has none and the customs and officials only speak Russian. We were meant to have a Russian translator but for some reason, he was not allowed into the customs area today. He had been here for the last two days to help the other teams who had to cross the border but luck was not with us today. We parked the trucks and made our way to the customs office.
They do have have a big computer screen to tell you how your customs clearance is proceeding, BUT IT,S IN RUSSIAN.
Finally, we all had our paperwork checked and everything was going ok until they said that some paperwork needed translating.
AND OUR TRANSLATOR WAS NOT STILL NOT ALLOWED IN.
Russian customs check the trucks
The hours ticked by until we were told that we were clear to go to the scanner/X-ray machine. Eagerly, we got in our trucks, drove a short distance and joined another queue. We were almost at the front of this queue when a customs official came out and told us that we COULD NOT go through the scanner and we would have to return to the parking area.
WHY????
I do not know.
The very last checkpoint as we enter into Russia
After 12 hours in customs, we make the short drive to some secure parking area for the night. So much aggravation and we have not even started driving in Russia.
Some news from the teams who have cleared customs before us and are now driving towards the Moscow Raceway. The roads are even worse than Latvia and sometimes they can only drive at 20kmh. The Eurosport truck has had 2 tyre punctures and everybody is telling me stories of good and bad experiences with the Russian customs.
Read the final installment and check out the photo special edition ............SOON.
Well, it is time to start our journey to Moscow Raceway. All of the importation documents have been obtained and we have got our Russian visa stamps in our passports.As I mentioned before, we have decided to take our older, 3 axle race trailer, as we feel that this will cope better with the very bad roads which we will be driving on.
We have 840km to drive to reach the German port of Travemunde. What we were not expecting was the many roadworks, no overtaking for trucks and the high volume of traffic on the German Autobahns. It takes us nearly 13 hours. That is an average speed of 63km/hour. Very slow and very frustrating. We left the factory earlier than we would normally do. If we had not done this, we would definitely have missed our boat. We try to plan in advance for any delays or problems but this time, the road conditions were totally unpredictable.
JAS Honda in Poland
This is our first time in Travemunde port and the truck parking is full. We wait 30 minutes until a space is available. As we try to manoeuvre the truck into this very tight space, a small van drives into the parking space from the other end. The driver gets out and I have to get rather angry with him and tell him that we were here first and that he should find somewhere else. I think my physical siz3 convinced him that he was going to lose any argument with me. Once we are parked, we go to the shipping office, fill out more paperwork and collect our tickets for the boat. A short drive through the automatic gate system and we park up alongside the ship and wait to be loaded.
Think Tank truck on a very bad road
My decision to go with a boat from Germany to Latvia is one that I made for safety reasons. The cost of driving through Germany, Poland, Lithuania and into Latvia is approximately the same as the cost of the boat. But if we breakdown or have punctures, we will be delayed which means that we would have to leave the factory even earlier than we did already. If you factor in the cost of road tolls, any security issues that we may have and the general cost of running a truck on a Euro per kilometre basis, I know we have made the right choice.
Some WTCC trucks waiting for the boat in Travemunde
As usual, I have been in contact with the other WTCC Truckies. Some teams have decided not to use the boat. And to highlight what I just mentioned about the problems of driving such a long way, I can tell you that one truck hit a very large animal which ran in front of their truck. The damage will be expensive but luckily they have made a good temporary repair and can still continue their journey into Russia.
The boat we are using is a freight boat and it is full of truck drivers from mainly Eastern European countries.
Night falls at the meeting point,Karsava, Latvia
After a 26 hour boat trip, we arrive in the port of Ventspils, Latvia.This town is so quiet and there is hardly a vehicle in sight. We drive towards Riga and after a 100km, we find a petrol station with a large truck parking area so this is the end of of our day as daytime turns to night.
Tomorrow, we will continue to the meeting point and our first encounter with Russian customs.
TO BE CONTINUED..................................................
First to leave the track on Sunday evening was the All Inkl team as they set off to drive to the Lausitzring for some testing.
With all of the troubles of qualifying,which happened at the WTCC race at Salzburg, it was nice to get in the truck on the Monday morning and start driving home. But Monday is a holiday in Germany and trucks are not meant to be on the road. Some trucks ARE allowed but these are normally carrying food for the supermarkets. However, our trucks are classed as being used for entertainment so we can normally drive when other trucks cannot. But it is still possible to be stopped by the police and ultimately, they can make us wait until the truck ban is finished.
We are heading for Reims, France and with over 850km to drive, myself and my co-driver have a long day ahead of us .Once we are back at the factory, we have to unload the truck and transfer everything into our other truck before we start driving towards Russia next week. The decision to take a different trailer has been made as we have 2 axles on our race trailer and we feel that the 3 axles, on the other trailer, will allow us to cope with the poor road surfaces which we are going to encounter. Also, if we have any tyre punctures, the older trailer does not have the expensive bodywork, covering the wheels, so it will be cheaper to repair than our very nice race trailer.
The day after I arrive back home, I have to go to the Russian Embassy and apply for my visa. After waiting for an hour, my application is accepted and they tell me that my passport will be posted back to me in 2 days with a visa stamp in it. Something happened in Salzburg which myself and my team could not believe. When we arrived at the circuit, to begin our drive home, we realised that some thief had stolen our electrical cable which connects the truck to the trailer. Because of this, we had no lights, no brake lights and no indicator lights on our trailer. Due to it being a holiday, the truck businesses were closed in all the countries that we drove through, and we were unable to buy a new one.
Was it one of the WTCC Truckies who stole it, or one of the Truckies from the support races? Unfortunately, it will be impossible to find out. We took a dangerous risk with the other road users and we could have been in trouble with the police for having no lights. We had to take extra care when we driving and thankfully we avoided this.
We decided last week to use the ferry boat from Germany to Latvia and then drive to Russia. We will arrive in Ventspils, Latvia and then we can drive the 450km to the border. I think this is a better option than driving through Poland, Lithuania. The Lada Lukoil team are driving to Russia now and decided to use the boat as well. I have just received some pictures so you can see what the rest of the teams will have to contend with when we leave next week. Thanks for the pictures Max.
Night time driving means extra care must be taken.
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.
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!!!
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.
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.
