Group Aims for Super Truck Racing

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Motor sports fans may soon be cheering for Peterbilts and Freightliners instead of Dodges and Chevys, if a new group unveiled at the Mid-America Trucking Show has anything to say about it.

The creation of the Super Truck Racing Association of North America, or Strana, was announced at a press conference March 22. It would be the governing body for racing in this country of the largest truck category, the class 8 rigs, although no racing dates have been set so far.

L. Daniel Metz, an authority on motor sports racing, said super truck racing offers benefits in the areas of environmental issues, truck performance and safety.

“There is no better way to test vehicles than under race conditions,” Metz said. “Not only does racing accelerate stress, wear and failure of components, it sharpens engineers, spurs creativity and develops a healthy competitive spirit among participants.”

“We can expect improvements in truck aerodynamics, engine durability and serviceability to all occur as a result of the healthy, intense pressure of race competition, as they have occurred in every other breed of vehicle that has been raced,” he said.

Metz also thinks racing will improve “our understanding of truck crash performance, driver/occupant deceleration levels, restraint and seating systems, driver environments and control layout.”

Sponsoring this new racing venture is ZF Group, a maker of transmissions, driveline technology, chassis technology and steering systems. It is headquartered in Friedrichshafen, Germany, but has its North American headquarters in Florence, Ky.

Brian Till, executive director of the new association, said it was formed after extensive discussions with people in the trucking industry and track owners, plus “those who run super truck racing in Europe and those who have run super truck racing series on this continent in the past.”

Till is a former auto racing driver, who competed in the Indianapolis 500 and other major races.

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