Truck racing in Europe is divided into two leagues. The Race Trucks, which are based on road going trucks, and the Super Race Trucks, which are all purpose built racing trucks. The Super Race title is contested by 3 manufacturers, DAF having pulled out last year. They are Mercedes Benz (3 trucks), MAN (5 trucks) the Caterpiller sponsored Truck Racing Developments with just one truck, and the new Tatra, also with one truck.
Harri Luostarinen and his Caterpillar-TRD Supertruck were on top form for Round 8 of the FIA European Truck Racing Cup, taking two pole positions, two wins, one second place and one third to take the lead in the championship, with two rounds remaining.
Practice on Saturday saw Harri setting a scorching pace, claiming a pole‚ position with a time of 1m.50.537 (average speed 135.094 km/h), an amazing 0.7 secs quicker than closest rival Ludovic Faure (Mercedes-Benz). Championship leader Gerd Korber only managed fourth fastest time, lining up on row two alongside fellow MAN driver Alain Ferte.
The start of the first Qualifying race saw Luostarinen sprinting into an immediate lead while those behind squabbled for the minor placings.
Faure made a slow getaway and was relegated to fourth as the MAN duo of Ferte and Korber overtook into the first chicane.
Luostarinen quickly established a comfortable lead and pulled away to win by a margin of three seconds at the finish, setting a new lap record time of 1m.51.618 secs on his way to victory. That result put him top of the championship tables, one point in front of Korber.
The Saturday Cup race brought further success for Luostarinen. The Caterpillar driver again powered into an immediate lead and only Ferte looked in a position to pose a serious challenge. However, Harri was in control of the situation – again setting fastest lap of the race and heading Ferte over the finishing line by 0.438 secs to claim another valuable 20 championship points.
The remainder of the pack were trailing home a long distance behind the leading duo with third placed Antonio Albacete (MAN) over six seconds behind in third with the Mercedes of Faure, Steve Parrish and Markus Oestreich completing the top six.
Luostarinen's main championship rival, Gerd Korber, dropped out after just two laps with a differential failure – so after the first day of action the German was trailing 21 points behind in the overall standings.
"Everything went really well today, and 30 points from two victories while Gerd only collected 8 points is the kind of result I was looking for," said a happy Luostarinen on Saturday evening.
Sunday morning brought another hot, sunny day, and another large crowd (bringing the total audience for the weekend to over 100,000).
Lap times in practice were slightly slower due to the amount of oil and rubber deposited on the circuit the previous day, but it was again Luostarinen who set the pace to claim a pole‚ with a best time of 1m. 50.976 (average speed 134.564 km/h).
The nearest competition came in the shape of Mercedes driver Faure – 0.421 secs slower while Korber could only manage sixth quickest time.
The start of the Qualifying race didn't go exactly according to plan
from Harri's point of view; as he upshifted from third to fourth gear the Caterpillar truck suffered serious wheelspin on the slippery circuit. "I had to lift off the throttle and lost all the boost pressure for a second or so, losing a lot of acceleration," he explained.
That presented Faure with the opportunity to shoot ahead with fellow Frenchman Ferte also taking advantage of the situation to relegate Harri to third.
The positions remained unchanged to the finish, Luostarinen finding the slippery track affected the traction enough to prevent him mounting any serious challenge for the lead. However third was a good result, and with Korber some 0.41 seconds behind in fourth Luostarinen had again extended his championship lead. Fifth fell to the Mercedes of Parrish.
The final Cup race of the weekend saw another sensible drive by
Luostarinen to consolidate his championship position.
Faure led the sprint away at the green lights with Ferte running second and Harri third in front of Korber and Parrish.
But the situation was soon going to change; first Korber slowed with a damaged tire, dropping back down the field to finally finish eighth.
Then race leader Faure was forced to make a visit to the pits for a Stop & Go‚ penalty, the Mercedes driver having collected tire corner markers on two occasions.
This left Harri running a strong second, headed only by on-form Ferte. With his main championship rivals obviously out of contention Luostarinen used his head to drive a tactical race to secure a safe second place and another 15 points.
"I soon realized that Korber was running very slowly so I was taking no unnecessary risks and would have been content with third place. Then I saw the tires spread all over the track by Faure, so he soon had to make a stop which promoted me to second," explained Harri.
"After that I drove at a pace to keep a reasonable distance behind Ferte to conserve the truck, having clean air for my engine and brake cooling, while watching the mirrors to see that I was maintaining the gap to Parrish behind. If he started to close up I just upped the speed enough to shake him off. 15 points for second was enough for me with Korber only taking eighth!"
Overall this was an extremely successful for the Caterpillar-TRD team; a new lap record for the Most circuit, two pole positions, two wins, one second and a third place bringing a points tally of 53 which leaves Luostarinen leading the championship by a healthy margin of 34 points.
"We've enjoyed tremendous results at Zolder in previous years and it's a circuit I really like, so I'm certainly feeling confident about my championship chances at the moment," said Luostarinen.
Points After Round 8
- LUOSTARINEN (Caterpillar-TRD) 324
- Korber (MAN) 290
- Oestreich (Mercedes-Benz) 274
- Faure (Mercedes-Benz) 255
- Parrish (Mercedes-Benz) 249
- Ferte (MAN) 223
For more articles and pictures about the Caterpillar TRD Super Race truck, visit our web site: www.chrishodgetrucks.co.uk
and click on Truck Racing.
