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100mph lorries race through West Wales this weekend
publication date: Apr 6, 2011
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author/source: Peter Hughes
Trucks weighing more than 5.5 tonnes will be
charging through the Carmarthenshire countryside this weekend at up to 100 mph.
In fact, their antics will be restricted to the 1.5
miles of Pembrey Race Circuit as the British Truck Racing Championship pays its
first visit of the season to the venue.
The sport of truck racing originated in the mid
‘80s but has moved on a great deal in the past two decades
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used nowadays are a far cry from their road-going cousins.Just as in every
form of motorsport the main objective when preparing a Racetruck is to make it
go faster, but truck racing also has some regulations that make it equally
important not to go too fast.
Due to the sheer size and weight of these speedy
six-wheelers - minimum weight limit is 5500kgs - right from the beginning of
the sport a maximum speed limit of 100mph (160km/h) was enforced for safety
reasons, although they can still accelerate from 0 to 60mph faster than a
Porsche 911 sports car.
One side-effect of this rule is that the racing tends to be extremely close.
No-one can run away into the distance purely because of a superior top speed.
Of course this places a premium on acceleration and braking - something a
modern Racetruck excels at.
The 12-litre turbocharged diesel engines used by
the majority of the field are tuned up to produce in excess of 1000 horsepower,
which is more than double the output of even the most powerful road version.
Combined with the vast torque figure of over 3000Nm, this gives the Racetrucks
amazing straight-line performance. It's stopping power isn't too shabby either,
thanks to water-cooled disc brakes and six, super-sticky racing tyres.
The opening round of the championship at Brands
Hatch produced its usual quota of thrills and spills and just two points
separate championship leader David Jenkins from closest rival Ricky Collett.
Although hailing from Staffordshire, family ties mean Jenkins regards Pembrey
as his home circuit and he will be keen to report his Brands Hatch performance
when he notched up no fewer than four race wins.
In addition to these racing goliaths there will be
a full programme of support events including races for the hard fought
pick-up truck championship which features purpose built 230bhp racing specials
pushed along by a 2 litre multi-valve twin-cam engine.
There will also be single seater action from the
Formula Ford contenders, while the weekend marks the start of the season for
competitors in the Welsh Sports and Saloon Car Championship.
Practise will get underway at 10am on Saturday with
a four race programme scheduled to start at 1.45pm. An 8 race programme starts
at 10am on Sunday. Admission is £12 each day for adults with accompanied
children up to 14 years old admitted free of charge.
The Pembrey Circuit is located between
Kidwelly and Burry Port and is signposted from the M4.
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