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