The European Truck Racing Championship is packing in some huge crowds
If you elbow your way through the crowds at an FIA European Truck Racing Championship round, you realise just how much there is going on. The ETRC field undoubtedly takes centre stage.
ETRA (the series promoter) has a calendar based around established events with a huge customer base, like the German Truck GP that has been going for 30 years. Autograph sessions are a feature of the weekend in the fan village, rather than in the teams’ awnings. All the drivers are in a row, pen in hand as the stars of the show.
The fan village is the focal point of the paddock, with the autograph sessions, interviews and slot truck racing tracks there too. It is where the podiums are conducted, rather than on the circuit’s structure, meaning fans get to mingle with drivers.
Television coverage comes in the form of 24-minute highlight programmes after the event, in English, French and German, while major manufacturer presence (especially in Germany) adds to the scale of the event. Add in concerts, show truck parades and a go-stop competition, there is no escaping juggernaut jollity.
The diesel dicers get four races, two each day, while in France and Germany, the local racers get a chance to hit the track too in their domestic series. But where ETRA has been savvy is in the Grammer Cup, backed by the German car and truck interior specialists, for the non-pro Chromegraded drivers and an incentive for drivers that don’t want to commit to the cost of registering for a whole season and who rock up as race-byrace entrants. Wherever possible, ETRA is welcoming rigs to the grid.
Grids, and exposure, are growing all the time. The ETRC is booming.