#ONETRUCKFAMILY Esports Challenge Kick-Starts in Hungary
4 events with 8 races will see truck racing pros and sim racers battle it out on two separate grids on some of the ETRC’s favourite tracks
The 2021 virtual truck racing season will get underway at the Hungaroring this weekend, with a 15-driver strong line-up on the truck team grid.
Reign virtual ETRC champion Norbi Kiss set the bar high in last year’s eSports challenge with ten wins and 13 podiums. Kiss will carry the #1 on his red Révész Truck Racing team truck.
Last year’s runner-up Sascha Lenz will be keen to continue his strong performance in the digital racing challenge from last year, where he scored one win in Zolder and 13 podiums.
French racer Téo Calvet, has shown some impressive sim racing skills, when he won at the Nürburgring and in Jarama and was on the podium another 5 times. He finished third overall and is certainly another contender for victories.
Spanish ETRC champion Antonio Albacete is back on the virtual track with his T Sport Bernau MAN. After a bit of a slow start, he really improved his virtual racing skills and claimed a podium at Le Mans.
Lion Truck Racing team manager Jonathan Andre is back for this year’s digital edition in the team’s yellow MAN. He scored 7 podium finishes last year and will be keen to get his first victory.
Lukas Hahn joined the grid halfway through last year’s virtual season for two races, getting straight into the mix with the front-runners and scored a podium in Most.
Dutch brothers Björn and Henry Tijhuis have both raced in the ETRC digital championship before, and they will line up alongside each other on the grid for the 8-race virtual season.
This year’s competition will see some new faces on the grid as the #onetruckfamily eSports Challenge was opened up to truck racing drivers from other European Truck Racing Series.
New to the competition is Manuel Alvarez, who races in the Spanish Truck Racing series with Alvi Truck-TMA. He managed to get on the podium in his debut race at Cheste and got into sim racing last year during lockdown.
Another Spanish entry is Josy Vila, who won the Spanish Truck Racing Championship in 2019 with the AlviTruckSport team. Josy is also a seasoned sim racer as he finished runner-up in the Virtual Truck Racing Championship last year, raced in the Spanish virtual Clio Cup Championship and he’s currently racing in the Porsche Super Cup.
The fourth Spanish driver on the grid is Murcia Racing Truck driver Pedro Marco, who will line up alongside his fellow countrymen when the lights go out at the Hungaroring on Sunday.
New to the grid is French racer Lucas Rivals, who started his racing career in the French Les Rencontres Peugeot Sport, where he won the endurance category in 2019. Since 2020 he races in the French truck racing Championship with Team AMR. Having done only one race on iRacing with a Porsche 911R in Albi, Lucas hasn’t had much experience on the sim yet, but he has put in a lot of hours in preparation of the ETRC Digital Racing Challenge.
German racer Marco Klingelhöfer got the truck racing bug when he was only 2 years old, after he visited the Truck Grand Prix at the Nürburgring with his dad. In 2018 he was finally able to realise his dream of starting a team of his own and founded Maddox Truckracing. His planned debut at the Nürburgring in 2020 had to be postponed, due to the ongoing pandemic. Marco got his first experience in the virtual truck racing world last year, when he competed in the Spanish Virtual Truck Racing Championship.
Rounding out the grid will be Dutch truck racing driver Ferry van Drunen and young Portuguese racer Ivan Rodrigues, who races for the French Luxo Sport team. He claimed pole position at the Le Mans GP in 2019 and also has a lot of experience on the sim, as he’s taken part in some international championships.
The truck racing drivers will compete against each other on a simulator of their choice on the “Assetto Corsa” gaming platform, and whilst they all have the same coding structure, the drivers can make some individual modifications.
Rules and regulation are based on the real FIA ETRC and the virtual races will be monitored and supervised by an official clerk of the course, race control and officials, who all hold a DMSB license.
Racing coverage starts on Sunday, 24 January 2021 from 17:30 CET LIVE across the ETRC digital channels.
SCHEDULE TRUCK TEAMS
17:30 Qualifying
18:00 Race 1
19:00 Race 2
SCHEDULE SIM RACERS
20:20 Qualifying
20:40 Race 1
21:15 Race 2
All times CET
ETRC DIGITAL RACING CHALLENGE DATES
Round 1 – 24 January 2021, Hungaroring
Round 2 – 07 February 2021, Nürburgring
Round 3 – 21 February 2021, Le Mans
Round 4 – 07 March 2021, Jarama
ETRC DIGITAL RACING CHALLENGE TRUCK RACE TEAM GRID
| No | Driver | Nationality | Team | Truck Racing Series | Truck |
| #1 | Norbert Kiss | HUN | Révész TRT | FIA ETRC | MAN |
| #8 | Manuel Álvarez | ESP | AlviTruck – TMA | Spanish Truck Racing Championship | Mercedes |
| #12 | Lucas Rivals | FR | Team AMR | French Truck Racing Championship | Renault |
| #15 | Henry Tijhuis | NL | Team EK-truckrace | FIA ETRC | Scania |
| #19 | Marco Klingelhöfer | GER | Maddox Truckracing | Dutch Truck Racing | Iveco |
| #20 | Teo Calvet | FR | BUGGYRA Zero Mileage Racing |
FIA ETRC | Freightliner |
| #22 | Lukas Hahn | GER | Hahn Racing | FIA ETRC | Iveco |
| #23 | Antonio Albacete | ESP | T Sport Bernau | FIA ETRC | MAN |
| #25 | Pedro Marco | ESP | Murcia Racing Truck | Spanish Truck Racing Championship | MAN |
| #30 | Sascha Lenz | GER | SL Trucksport 30 | FIA ETRC | MAN |
| #51 | Björn Tijhuis | NL | Truck Racing Team Kreeft | Dutch Truck Racing | DAF |
| #66 | Jonathan Andre | FR | Lion Truck Racing | FIA ETRC | MAN |
| #81 | Ferry van Drunen | NL | Van Drunen Truck Racing | Dutch Truck Racing | Scania |
| #94 | Ivan Rodrigues | PRT | LUXO SPORT RACING TEAM | French Truck Racing Championship | MAN |
| #99 | Josy Vila | ESP | AlviTruckSport | Spanish Truck Racing Championship | MAN |
