Truck Racing
The term truck racing and truck racing motor sports races are indicated by a lorry on a racetrack courses. The European racing series is the Truck Racing Championship, which will be held under the patronage of the FIA.
History
The idea was not until the late 1970s, imported by Dutch motorsport fans to Europe. They had seen similar competition in the U.S., which were held there on unpaved runways. 1980 the Dutch organized a demonstration event at the circuit of Zandvoort. The following year, the organization Stichting Truck Racing Power Festival ( STPF ) was founded on May 23. This organized the first truck races in Europe, which took place on a course near Nijmegen. In parallel, the new motorsport discipline developed in France, on the famous circuit of Le Mans in 1981 there was the first time an event entitled 24 heures camion.
Based on the audience response, the truck race activities internationalized 1983. So there was this year a race in Assen (Netherlands), participated in the first time, British driver. In 1984 the series to race in the UK ( Brands Hatch and Donington Park ) has been extended. This development led to the race teams, race track owners and operators the European Truck Racing Organization ( ETRO ) founded as an interest association. The ETRO (later renamed ETRA, European Truck Racing Association ) set up in 1985 for the first time a European Truck Championship, which comprised seven races. ETRO and ETRA were almost ten years organizer of the Championship; In 1994, took over the world auto sports federation Fédération Internationale de l' Automobile ( FIA), the patronage of the race series, which was first deployed as FIA European Cup and from 2006 received the status of a FIA European Championship.
Trucks
In the early years of truck racing was operated with standard road trucks. The protagonists were usually with their tractor-trailers at the racetrack, kuppelten from the trailer and denied the competitions with their tractors. The classification was carried out in three classes, the first directed by the Power: A to PS 300, B 300 to 360 hp, C 360 to 400 hp. Later, the distinction is made according to the displacement (up to 12, 12 to 14 and 14 liters). As the EM series landed at the FIA , already a strong professionalization had used. The trucks were specially prepared for the race, as well as components such as tires, brakes ( with water cooling), turbo or injectors were adapted for racing. A first highlight of this development was the construction of a special Conventional Trucks by the driver Gerd Körber or whose firm Bickel changes in Rheinau dar. Körber won with Phoenix in which next to thoroughbred racing technology components from the MAN series production were installed, immediately 1991 the European title in its class.
From the FIA , a new classification of the race trucks was to a near-series category (Race Class) and a prototype series ( Super Race Class), in the gathered especially the factory supported teams. The cars in the Super Race Class recorded after a few years to benefits by 1500 hp at about 5000 Nm of torque. The acceleration of the approximately five -ton trucks from 0 to 100 was completed in less than four seconds. The costly upgrade led to a dead end from which the Super Race Class was no way out, so that initially withdrew the manufacturer of the truck with sports prototypes. The class was taken at the start of the 2006 season final of the regulations. Since then, only vehicles go into the production-based race class at the start. In this category, certain components - for example, the cabs - are taken from homologated road truck unchanged. Nevertheless, the achievements of the strongest vehicles at 1250 hp and 5000 Nm of torque are well above.
Driver
In the early years of full-time truck drivers dominated the sport truck on the track. Only with the beginning of the prototype series took increasingly professional racers the cockpit. Driver as the British Rod Chapman and record champion Steve Parrish had acquired previously in other motorsport disciplines merits. Chapman was one of Europe's famous Rally Crosser in the 1970s, while Parrish long time motorcycle race was run. The eventual winners Fritz Kreutzpointner, Markus Oestreich ( both Germany ) and Harri Luostarinen (Finland ) came from the touring car or the rally scene. The European Champion of 2007, Markus Bösiger ( Switzerland ), was formerly several times world champion in the motorcycle sidecar riders and with Slim Borgudd (Sweden) even took part in a former ABBA drummer and Formula 1 driver for some time at the European Truck Racing Championship. His skill set Borgudd by winning two European titles to the test.
Racetracks
The European Truck Racing Championship comprised in recent years, usually nine races on the race track in Belgium ( Zolder ), France ( Le Mans Circuit de Nogaro ), Italy ( Misano Adriatico ), Spain ( Circuit de Pedralbes Circuito de Albacete and Circuito del Jarama ) and the Czech Republic ( Autodrome must) take place. The highlight of the season has been for many years the German Truck Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, in which the organizing ADAC Middle Rhine in good years cumulated up to 220,000 visitors attended. 2007, at the 21st edition of the spectacle, the official visitor number was around 180,000. After the Formula 1 circus will no longer be guesting annually in the Eifel, the Truck Grand Prix in the calculations of the hosts and the regional economy takes over the role as the largest motorsports event at the German circuit.
Other series
In Europe, there are next to the FIA championship nor national truck racing championships in the UK, the Netherlands, Finland, France and Spain. Professional Truck Racing was operated in Australia and New Zealand. There are many long years was a series that was related to professionalism and spectator interest comparable to the parallel races held in Europe. In 2002, the championship was ended on the other side during the current season due to dissonance between drivers or teams on one side and organizers. In South America, the focus of the Formula Truck is located in Brazil and is managed by the organization O Carreteiro Racing since 1996 and during 2007 as well as the European Championship nine events.