Goodbye Japan.

I am sat in a hotel room in Tokyo and I have a flight back home tomorrow. This gives me chance to update this blog. At Suzuka we celebrated 200 races in the WTCC and I have been working at 70% of them. I can,t even calculate how many hours and kilometres that we have driven the trucks and how many times we have loaded and unloaded our cars and equipment in the containers. The WTCC has changed over the years, including a single season in 1987, a World Touring Car Cup held between 1993 and 1995 and recently as a world championship that started in 2005. You can watch a great little video on the WTCC website of the races since 2005. Please click on the link below.

http://www.fiawtcc.com/videogallery/detail/id/1035/

It is also my 100th blog post so it is a double celebration. I hope you have taken time to read them all.

The paddock in Suzuka was as busy as ever on the Sunday evening. Thankfully, the Truckies and the teams only had to load the cars and equipment into the containers at the back of each garage.
NO AIR FREIGHT.... Makes everybody HAPPY.
It was interesting watching some of the Chinese teams load their containers as they seemed to be watching how the regular teams were doing it and they tried to do the same. They obviously felt that they could learn something from us and I hope that it made their work a little bit easier.
With only 2 more races before the season finishes in Macau, we are still very busy when we are not racing. The sporting regulations for 2014 mean that new cars have been built or they presently under construction. As well as this, there has also been the tyre testing for the new 18 inch wheels. We may even be going to some different circuits next year as Citroen would like a race close to France. Maybe we will go to Le Castellet or even Spa Franchorchamps. It would be nice if we could use the full length Suzuka GP circuit in 2014 but this would mean that the television company has to find alot of extra money for all the additional tv cameras. As with everything in the world of motorsport, we will have to wait and see.

It was good to see so many race fans in Japan. They reckon over 30000 people came to watch. Brilliant.

My friends x-ray of his broken arm.

And lastly, I must include a quick message to my friend Karlos, who was very unlucky in Suzuka and sustained a broken arm.
GET WELL SOON.

Welcome to Japan.

Firstly, I would like to thank my boss and work colleagues for all their help and support during my short, but rather serious illness. Thankfully, I have only used up one of my "lives" and I am very lucky to be in here in Suzuka. I feel much happier to be working again and to be enjoying the company and friendship of all the people that I know and work with in the WTCC paddock.
I am also very grateful to the people who have emailed me and sent photos. My blog relies on so many people sharing information and this gives you the chance to see and read about the Truckies.

The cars at Nagoya airport, before they are moved to Suzuka.

The logistics this year have been crazy with the very expensive use of air freight, rather than using sea freight. This was due to the WTCC organisers trying to hold races in countries like Argentina, and maybe not realising how difficult it can be to move all of our cars and equipment. Unfortunately, this affects the rest of the race calendar for the year and also how much extra work the Truckies and the teams must do. I shall be writing a more detailed report on this when we get to Shanghai.

I have noticed that some team equipment has been damaged. This is not a fault of the logistics or shipping company, it is because the WTCC does not have big money to spend on protective flightcases for everything. We do not have the luxury of being able to buy double of everything or even to be able to customise the equipment to suit our needs.
These boxes can cost a minimum of 100 Euros for a small flightcase and the price just goes up and up. I have tried to make a comparison between F1 and WTCC and it is not possible. A WTCC team will be able to race for one year for the same amount of money that an F1 team will spend in one weekend....THERE IS NO COMPARISON !

The typhoon that hit Japan at the start of this week meant that the airports, roads and railways were closed for a short time but the teams have worked hard to unload all their equipment and start setting up the garages and working on the cars. The stormy weather has gone and the temperature is hot. We have some new teams for the Asian races in Macau, Shanghai and Suzuka and it was good to see that they were feeling the heat and humidity as much as the European teams.

China Dragon Racing prepare the garage in Suzuka 2013

All of the containers have been placed behind the team garages so they are ready to be loaded up after the race and sent by sea to China and finally on to the last race of the season in Macau.
The talk and gossip in the WTCC paddock is very evident here this week. We have a team who has changed their driver due to financial reasons. What will happen to the Seat and Bmw teams next year? And what about new Citroen, Honda and Lada cars which are being built to the new 2014 regulations? Will Rml build a new version of the Chevrolet?
The list of talking points are endless and unfortunately I do not want to write about these subjects here. There are plenty of dedicated motorsport sites on the internet where you follow these stories.Once again, I will leave you with some more pictures from me and my Truckie friends, here in Japan.

Tom Boardman gets busy at Suzuka.

The crane and container crews take a well deserved break from the relentless sunshine

SHiPs........... Suzuka Highway Patrol.

Do you remember the American TV series from the 1980,s called CHiPs ??

We now have one of the Truckies doing his own impression in Suzuka, Japan.  
Keeping the paddock safe from speeders and drink drivers.

It is very hot here today so maybe the sun has got to his brain.
I will be updating my blog this evening with some stories from Japan.

Sonoma WTCC 2013.......and I,m not there : (

If you are reading this, then you should be grateful to my very good friends Bela (Zengo), Mario (PB Racing) Pepe (Seat) and Max (Lada), who have kindly sent me some photos. I have had emails from the other Truckies and everything seems unchanged from last year. Obviously the cars and equipment have been air freighted from Argentina rather than by container ship in 2012.
You can read about last years USA race here.
http://racetruckie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/sonoma-sunshine.html
I am not in Sonoma as I am busy in Germany with other Truckie duties, but will be returning for the next race in Japan. In the meantime, enjoy the photos.

Tuenti Racing Chevrolet gets a makeover

Drag Racing at Sonoma on Wednesday while the teams are getting ready.

PB Racing...new car colours

Bamboo team are busy