Battle Of The Goliaths - Tata T1 Prima Truck Racing Season 4

"Formula1 lasted for three seasons in India; Tata T1 Prima Truck Racing is back with its fourth season" -- A phrase we heard often during the two-day spectacle in which three categories of drivers raced trucks weighing over seven tonnes. It's exciting to watch Usain Bolt run the 100-metre dash but it would also be equally entertaining to see sumo wrestlers do the same thing. Similarly, truck racing is more about entertainment than excitement, and the event was full of it. It had singers, dancers, actors and, of course, old-school racing. 

The trucks racing in the event are T1 Primas, but with race-spec modifications. They have been lowered, given aerodynamic body panels and stripped out to reduce weight. Powering them is a 9-litre straight-six diesel engine. It produces 400PS of power at 2100rpm and 1700Nm. The transmission coupled to this mammoth is an 8-speed manual. With this configuration, this truck is capable of reaching speeds slightly above 150kmph. 

This time around, Tata also previewed a 1000-horsepower Prima truck which is on par with the trucks from the British and European championships. It uses the same engine block, with some new parts, to now be a 12-litre monster which belts out 1000PS of power at 2600rpm and a massive 3500Nm of torque at just 1600rpm. Putting this power to the ground is a 16-speed manual transmission. With all this grunt, the engine consumes 1 litre of fuel in 20 seconds, uses 30-litres of oil and the turbo sucks in 3.6 tonnes of air per hour. The result: the truck sprints from 0-160kmph in under ten seconds! That's faster than most of the fast cars in the country. Also, the lap time of the 1000-horsepower truck is almost 15 seconds less than the current race truck.

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The race itself is divided into three categories. The Indian truckers have two different categories (Super and Champions Class) and the international professional racers compete in one (Pro Class). The Super Class consists of new racers who have become a part of this event for the first time. The Champions Class race consists of last year’s racers who will take part in this event for the second time. 

In the Pro Class, six new international drivers from the European Truck Racing Championship were introduced out of which, for the first time in T1 Prima, there was a lady racer - Stephanie Halm. Competing with these six were six other international drivers from the British Truck Racing Association who have been a part of this competition since season 1.

The races began in the afternoon, before which there were singers and dancers entertaining the crowd. The first race was the Super Class in which Pitamber, after having the fastest time in the qualifying, at 1:50.422, went on to comfortably win the race. Shivnihal Singh started from the 6th position and finished second while Gurujant Singh started from third and finished third. 

The second race of the day was Pro Class race 1. It was expected to be an action-packed race and it delivered. There were high risk overtakes and aggressive cornering, which resulted in the race being red flagged after the sixth lap. Ryan Smith (the current British champion) and Norbert Kiss, both got trapped in the gravel at C3, leading to the race being called off. David Vrsecky took the victory after leading the entire way from pole position, Gerhard Korber was second and last year’s champion, David Jenkins, finished third. 

The next race was Champion Class. Last year’s winner Nagarjuna drove phenomenally this year as well and won the race with a decent lead. Behind him were Malkeet Singh and Bhag Chand, finishing second and third respectively. 

The last race of the evening was the Pro Class race 2, in which the Brit champion Ryan Smith was keen to make an impact after having been not able to finish race one. He barely avoided a collision Simon Reid  to stay in the race but did not manage to get a podium finish. Vrsecky won the second race as well, with Norbert Kiss in second and Korber in third.

It was an action-packed weekend with trucks fighting neck to neck, corner after corner to gain precious seconds from their competition. Tata T1 Prima Truck Racing Championship will be back next year with more drama and entertainment and I suggest you book a spot.

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