Morocco is calling us.

The WTCC and the Auto GP trucks have been driving from Monza down to the south of Spain, ready to go across to Morocco. Unfortunately, one of the trucks suffered a huge tyre blowout, not long after leaving Monza. Maybe they should use Yokohama tyres and not Dunlop!!

Once again, there are concerns for the customs procedures when we get to Tangiers. Some teams will be going by boat from Italy and others will depart for Morocco from Spain
To be honest, getting into Morocco is the easy part and we have been in contact with the Moroccan customs and are hopeing that the customs formalities will be quick and efficient.
UNLIKE PREVIOUS YEARS.
We do have a big problem because of the Easter holidays, which in a religious country like Spain, means that the shipping agents and Spanish customs will have the minimum amount of staff working. So we are trying to keep in touch with all the teams, the hospitality and television crews to ensure that we are all happy and ready to catch the boat.
When the WTCC raced in Turkey, in 2005 and 2006, we were helped with all the shipping and customs by a company called Billets and it was a very successful partnership which speeded up the whole process. We are invited to these countries to race and put on a show and whilst we must respect the customs procedures, it is not good to be treated the same as a truck that is importing or exporting goods for money. Our time schedule is very tight and delays should not be in the equation.
I had a conversation with some other Truckies last night concerning when we are requested to part company with our passports. A passport belongs to the government of the country who issued it and we are only the holders of the passport. When we get on the boat to Morocco, we have to take our passport to a policeman on the boat. He puts our details into a laptop, stamps the passport and it is then returned to us. We should not have to give our passports to anyone else other than to show a policeman or government official that we have been granted an entry stamp. It is a little bit worrying that we are forced to relinquish our passports when completing the customs process. Who looks at them and where they go to, I cannot say. We obviously have concerns about passport fraud but I hope that this practice does not happen again, this year.
The Lada team really have alot of work to do as they have had to go back to Magny Cours to prepare another car, after the shocking accident in Monza, and get the trucks back down to Spain to catch the boat to Morocco.I now have a chance to relax for a few days and to get rid of my awful cold that I seem to have brought with me from a very wet Monza and I will be out and about, taking photographs and chatting to the other Truckies.