Bickel Tuning

1996 - 1999

 

In 1996, I drove to Nürburgring taking along a universal application.

I asked several teams: What do I have to do to become a mechanic at your team?

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Talking to Bickel Tuning I was successful. I met Gerd Körber and Mario Kress and was invited to the race in Zolder. On site I volunteered offering to help and assisted the team throughout the weekend. For that reason, I was invited to attend the last race of the season, the one in Jarama, as well – and finally got a job offer.

On 7th January 1997 I left the Münster region southwards and moved to Rheinau.

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Together with Mario Kress, I built up two MAN Super Race trucks at Bickel Tuning.

For this purpose, we mainly used factory-made components, added some of our own in-house developments and joined it all together to build the Super Race trucks.

The manual skills, spare-parts management and technical know-how and procedures I thereby learned would from then on serve as the basis for my professional future.

Having Gummi Mayer as main sponsor, we finished the European championship ranking fifth.

Once finished the 1997 season, DAF Trucks asked Bickel Tuning to build factory racing vehicles. And Gerd Körber asked us whether we were up to doing so.

Of course, that meant we would have to take on the complete vehicle construction all on our owns. I was confronted with carrying out the construction of the chassis, analysing the optimum axial geometries and driving dynamics and with producing of the complete electronic system. In addition, I was involved at the production. Two labour-intensive but highly informative and enlightening years followed: In 1998 and 1999, we built a total of five race trucks.  In the end, our team finished the European championship with the pilots Alan Ferté and Gerd Körber on 2nd and 4th position.

 

M-Racing

​2000 - 2002

 

In 2000, after DAF Trucks left the championship, I was offered to build and service the Hasseroeder MAN as chief mechanic and technical manager at Peter Müller’s team with Gerd Körber as driver. Finishing 3rd, the season was highly successful again although quite tough.

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In 2001, I once again worked as technical manager and chief mechanic for Georg Meckle – M-Racing with a Mercedes-Benz truck and Markus Oestreich as its pilot. At this job, the main focus was on building up the new Mercedes-Benz Super Race truck and on further development of several components such as e.g. shock absorbers or self-locking differentials. With our new Atego on 6th position, we finished the 2001 season as best-ranked Mercedes-Benz truck. As MAN withdrew from the Super Race Trucks class, Mercedes-Benz did so, too. M-Racing restructured its business. I thus worked for the V8 touring car scene for about half a year in 2002.

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Atkins Racing

2002 - 2007​

 

Later in 2002, I met David Atkins (owner of the English Atkins-Racing team) again on Nürburgring. He had started a new project at the Race Trucks class together with MAN, Castrol and the driver Terry Rymer. We soon agreed on the conditions and already in August 2002 I worked as technical manager for Atkins Racing located in England.

Thanks to my increased use of data recording systems and the analysis of the data we thus collected, the modifications I introduced significantly improved the vehicle’s performance.

In addition, regarding further development, I also focused on optimising the gearboxes concerning both gearing and the shift times.

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In 2003, we first participated with a race truck completely designed and built by myself.

With race driver Stuart Oliver piloting the truck, we finished 3rd at the European championship and won the British championship.

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In 2004, another new build for David Atkins followed. With this new truck, Atkins Racing and my many years of work were crowned with success: We won the European championship for the first time and the British one as well.

Many thanks to Atkins Racing, David Atkins, Stuart Oliver, Paul Skues, Rainer Dolde, MAN, Roland van Hörner, Dirk Weberskirch, Artur Klein, Peter van Vessem, Castrol and Knorr-Bremse.

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In 2005, Atkins Racing had to replace Stuart Oliver by Markus Bösiger. The season was all about the right tyres. Unfortunately, we only finished 5th.

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In 2006, Atkins Racing stayed without main sponsor. Therefore, the season was a very hard and difficult one. It was mainly financed by Markus Bösiger. An yet we finished 6th at the European championship.

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In 2007, Atkins Racing was able to build a new race truck for the ETRC season newcomer Chris Levett and the main sponsor he brought along. That year, my main focus was on training and preparing the new young race driver Chris Levett. He finished the season ranking 8th at the European Truck Racing Championship (ETRC) and became British champion at the same time.

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From 2004 to 2007, the second race truck – also managed by me – was used for several races at both the European and the British championships with guest drivers such as Peter van Delm, Chris Levett and Richard Walker. At the end of 2007, David Atkins sold his team.

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Hahn Racing

2008 - 2015

 

In 2008, I saw my future in collaborating with MAN, Hahn Racing and the team’s race driver Jochen Hahn. As chief mechanic, I was again assigned construction, data-recording and data-analysis tasks. The result: eight in part highly successful years crowned with a series of three victories at the ETRC, a 2nd and a 3rd rank. 

Between 2008 and 2015, a total of six MAN/Hahn Racing race trucks were built. Thanks to countless modifications and rebuilds I was decisively involved at, they even provided the customers of the year-old vehicles with several victories.

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Tankpool24 Racing Team

2016 - 2018

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In 2016, I got the chance to build two Mercedes-Benz race trucks for the Tankpool24 Racing team. In the course of a three-year plan, we were really successful, finishing each year with our main driver Norbert Kiss within the top 5. In 2017 we finished 3rd in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship.

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Hones Racing Services

SL Trucksport & NWT Motorsport & TOR Truck Racing

2018 - 2020

 

In 2018, I made the decision to open my own workshop, after working for a number of years with different teams across Europe. This not only allows me to spend more time with my family, but also gives me the freedom to work on several projects at a time. Meaning, I can offer my services to more than just one race team at once. 

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In 2018 and 2019 I built MAN race trucks for two British drivers, John Newell and Shane Brereton and supported both drivers as they competed in British and European Truck Racing Championships. John Newell who didn´t race for many years progressed extremely well and managed to finish 3rd in the British Championship in 2019! 

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However, as these two teams mainly race in the UK, I decided in 2019 to undertake a new challenge by supporting racing driver, Sacha Lenz in the FIA ETRC. A challenge that paid off as Sacha, a relatively new & young driver to the European Championship, came 5th in 2019. In 2020 things looked very promising with Sascha leading the FIA ETRC standings but the pandemic forced us to finish season early than planned. All save and well, I´m not servicing and possibly building one new race truck for my British customers, Shane Brereton, John Newell, and truck racing newcomer Tom O'rourke.

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