This year, for the first time in history, truck racing came to our country. This event, in which our company actively participated, gave rise to a certain thought, namely: "What did such races look like in the past?" In this text we will try to explain it.
One of the first Daimler trucks
(source: mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com)
Truck racing is a fascinating and spectacular type of motorsport today, but it's worth looking back and seeing what it was like in the early 1970s and 1980s. These days of truck racing had a unique charm and were significantly different from today. They took place on various tracks, but often these were tracks previously used for passenger car or motorcycle racing. Some tracks were not especially adapted to trucks, which made the competition even more spectacular.
The first truck races took place in 1903 in Great Britain. This competition was organized by Daimler and was intended to promote the new Daimler Phoenix truck model . The race was held at Brooklands and was won by driver JF Parry-Thomas. In the 1920s and 1930s, truck racing was popular in Europe and the United States. The competition took place on oval and circular tracks. However, the races were dangerous and several drivers died as a result of accidents.
In the early 1970s in the Soviet Union, racing consisted of transport companies exhibiting their vehicles. These were primarily the legendary ZIL-130, which had an "amazing" 170 HP of power. With today's power of racing trucks, which have a power of around 1,200 HP, it sounds abstract, but back then these vehicles were really great for racing.
However, despite all these achievements, the year 1979 is considered to be the first official truck race, i.e. the first race at a track in the state of Georgia, Atlanta Motor Speedway. If you remember the movie "The Steering Wheel Master Runs 2" with Burt Reynolds in the main role, the first scene from this movie shows these competitions.
In the 1980s, racing experienced a real boom. During this period, many racing series were established, including the European Truck Racing Championship (ETRC), the British Truck Racing Championship (BTRC) and the American Truck Racing Association (ATRA). In fact, each continent has its most important races. There are no competitions that bring together drivers from all over the world. Of course, there are races with competitors from all over the world, but these are not typical world championships.
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A still from the movie "The Steering Master Runs Away 2
(source: Street Machine) Merican Truck Racing Association (ATRA) is an American organization that promotes truck racing. ATRA is relatively young, having been established in 2023, although truck racing in the United States has already taken place earlier.
In the 1970s and 1980s, there was the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) racing series in the US, which featured races on oval and dirt tracks. However, in 1990 the IHRA series was disbanded.
In the 1990s and 2000s, truck racing also took place in the US as part of other racing series such as NASCAR and Monster Jam. However, these were not series exclusively dedicated to trucks. In 2023, a group of truck racing enthusiasts decided to create a new racing series focusing exclusively on trucks, which resulted in the creation of ATRA.
The history of the European Championship is relatively short. It all started in 1985, when the European Truck Championship was founded. This year, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) registered the competition. Over the years, competitions have been divided into different categories. The assignment to a given category was determined by the vehicle's weight and capacity. All this to ensure that the competitions are balanced and safe.
Over the years, the categorization of vehicles changed, until 2006, when the guidelines were unified. One championship category has been created in which these powerful trucks race. Currently, each truck racing in competitions has strictly defined parameters - the maximum power is 1,200 HP and their speed is locked at 160 km/h. Additionally, the weight of the truck does not exceed 5.3 tons, and the vehicle has a 16-speed manual gearbox. Interestingly, most of the parts implemented in these cars are factory parts. Those that you can easily find on the shelves of our stores. They differ in two significant elements, namely brakes and wheels.
They use quite unusual technology in the braking system because they are water-cooled. As for the wheels, when turning you can see how they lie in an additional plane.
The history of professional truck racing , we're not talking about amateur racing, is actually quite short. However, over the years their popularity has increased significantly. More and more teams appear on the track to test themselves among drivers. An indicator of the increasing popularity of racing the largest vehicles is that more and more new locations appear in the championship calendar, and in countries where races have not been held before - such as Poland. We hope that in 2024, truck racing will also take place on the track in Poznań, and everything indicates this.
