Read all about Jiri Forman's weekend at Nogaro where he scored his best ever finish in the No.85 Buggyra International Racing System Freightliner FatFox
After each race weekend www.fiaetrc.com catches up with one of the drivers to get their summary of how it all went.
Nogaro debrief: Jiri Forman, Buggyra International Racing Systems.
The Czech driver is in his first year of truck racing and at just 22 years of age is one of the FIA ETRC ‘Young Guns’ along with André Kursim and Sascha Lenz who we have no doubt will attract a growing following in the championship.
We caught up with Jiri right after his rather unexpected promotion to third place in the final race in Nogaro, which came thanks to a number of penalties issued to other drivers, including Steffi Halm, who was originally placed third.
Jiri says.....
“It is just crazy, but I am very happy about it and most of all I am very happy for the team who have worked hard, as always, this weekend. So it is just amazing to have made third place at just my third event and I want to thank the team and the sponsors and everyone who is here and so it is very nice.
"This is my first season in truck racing and it can be hard to prepare for each weekend, because I don’t know the tracks and so I am trying to look at some on board camera (footage), you know and videos from the circuits, but there is not much available. Maybe for the big circuits like the Nürburgring and Hungaroring there will be some game simulators I can try, but it is not always easy because I have my work and it can be hard to find the time but I will try for Nürburgring. But really the first taste I get of a track is when I go out on it in a truck for the first time, but I am trying to learn as fast as I can.
"Of course, I don’t know the truck very well yet either, so this is also not very easy and it is a double thing to learn. There is obviously a big size difference between when I was in karts and now in trucks, but actually for the type of racing they are similar. So I would say that that karting is probably the best school for racing, but they are both the most pure kind of racing in the world, which is why I like it.
"I would say that this (truck racing) is big racing, you need to use your brain more and think what you are doing and also trucks are much more expensive than Karts…
"Spielberg (first event of the season) was crazy, first race and everything was new and everything was very big. The Sunday was wet and I really like the wet weather for our truck, so it was actually fun. Actually I was racing in England, so there is no other weather than wet (not true, from the English interviewer), so actually it is easier for me to race on a wet track then a dry one and so we also did a good event with two sevenths and a fifth. I think that yes, as I learn the tracks it gets easier each race (with four races at each event on the championship calendar).
"Also the number of fans you get at truck racing events, 40,000 people at a weekend is crazy and the people are loving it which is a very nice thing and I really appreciate that they follow me on my pages, which is great.
"Looking ahead to the next race (Nürburgring), I can’t say anything specific in terms of result, but I would like to learn in the first place and then if we can get faster and faster, then I will be very happy. Then if we have some points, then I will be very happy for that.
"For this season, I am trying to do my best and P3 it is fine and it is going well right now.
Jiří’s weekend in numbers:
|
Qualifying (Superpole) 1 |
7th |
|
Qualifying (Superpole) 2 |
9th |
|
Race 1 |
10th |
|
Race 2 |
9th |
|
Race 3 |
9th |
|
Race 4 |
3rd |
|
Position in Driver Championship: |
10th |
|
Position in Team Championship (Buggyra Racing 1969 with Adam Lacko) |
2nd |
* Subject FIA approval