PSKOV, August 27. /TASS/. Several hundred tonnes of German foods meant for the BMW teams and guests of the Moscow round of Germany’s DTM motor races had to be stopped on the Russian border for the lack of required documents and burned on site, the local phytosanitary office of Russia’s agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor for the Tver and Pskov regions has said. The editor-in-chief of the international portal Motorsport.com, Aleksandr Kabanovsky, has told TASS, though, the incident is unlikely to spoil the motor races in any way.
"The local office made the decision to confiscate the batch at the border checkpoint for crude violations of sanitary rules. The foods were burned in the incinerators on the border near Pskov," the watchdog said, adding the incident occurred on August 25-26.
Kabanovsky explained it was the German team’s old-time custom to bring its own food rations wherever it went. The DTM series is famous for treating guests and fans to authentic German cuisine.
"Possibly, this time the menu will be shorter and less diversified than usual, but the sporting event will proceed unaffected," he believes.
The Russian organizers, he went on to say, should have warned the German racers there was no chance for them to bring in foods from home without the proper certificates. Kabanovsky recalled another incident that occurred during a DTM race, for the first time held in Moscow in 2013. Some events that were to be held on a road northwest of Moscow had to be canceled due to a government helicopter flying over the area.
The Moscow round of Germany’s Silhouette racing car series (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters DTM, or German Touring Car Masters) is due in Moscow on August 28-30.