OFFICIAL PROGRAMME
EXCITING CONTENT
As far as the ‘ EuroTripla ’ of three races in succession is concerned , this year presents an all-new adventure for the WorldSBK and WorldSSP teams to handle . Which means transporting every single object and component that makes up the team from one racetrack to the next and once again to the next without any real break in proceedings . How will they do that , and what ’ s involved in driving all those distances ? Ten Kate Yamaha WorldSSP truck drivers Sidney Buitenhuis and Hessel Uilenberg , know that having three races back-to-back is going to be busy , but really more of the same thing they normally do , just squeezed much closer together . “ It will be quite the same for me , packing up on Sunday night and then Monday morning leaving to go to the next track ,” said Hessel . “ In a back-to-back round we would do that one time extra , now we do it two times extra . For our parts manager it will be more busy , packing more things in . More fuel , more parts , more consumables .”
There are two trucks in this team , one for the Hospitality Unit and the other for the pitbox area , or the ‘ Technical ’ truck . The prep for the big EuroTripla would start almost as soon as the Ten Kate truck got back to their headquarters in Nieuwleusen , the Netherlands 900km from Magny Cours . “ We go back on Monday , and then pack everything up , then the next Saturday we head to Barcelona , which will be another 1600km ,” said Hessel . “ We get to Barcelona Monday evening before the race weekend , because at Tuesday Morning , ten o ’ clock the hospitality truck needs to be in the paddock , to feed everybody in the team .” As both Ten Kate drivers are also mechanics inside the team - yes - they do all that driving and then work long hours at their ‘ real ’ jobs - there will be extra hands brought in to help with the driving of the trucks after the Barcelona round , to get to Jerez in good time . Two normally workshop based staff will drive one truck and Sidney / Hessel will drive the other , because as Sidney said , “ It is around 1000ks , and you cannot make that alone and still be at Jerez on Tuesday morning .”
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