RACE TRUCKIE: How to get a Racecar to the Track

To start this years blog, I thought that I would have a quick look at the history of the vehicles that get all these race cars to the circuits.

Auto Union(Audi)

To win a race, you have to get to the race first. So you’ve got to take your racing car, team crew and all its assorted paraphernalia sometimes over a 1000 kilometres from home to a circuit often lacking in many of life’s necessities One of the problems for early race car team owners was that there were few if any firms that specialised in the specific design and construction of a race car transporter, and it wasn,t until the advent of the 1970s that custom built trucks started to appear. Before the 1970s, when big money from sponsors helped to smarten up the paddock, all sorts of buses, furniture trucks, vans, trailers and other types of lorries were used in some shape or form.
Years before Europe,s motorway system had been developed, the teams had to move their cars, as quickly as possible, from the factories to the race tracks. Before tachographs were a legal requirement, mechanics or other team members would drive almost non-stop, taking turns to sleep and drive. There are some truly fantastic stories of journeys involving accidents, breakdowns and other incidents. Encounters and bribes with customs officials when they crossed the borders and trying to find fuel for the vehicles as there were not so many petrol stations. Many of the earlier trucks had petrol engines and after a race, they would use the leftover race fuel from the cars. Finally, they changed over to diesel engines when the fuel companies made it harder to take the petrol. Drivers had to endure the hot, fume filled and sweaty cabs (no air conditioning) as the under powered engines crawled slowly up the mountain roads and the smell of the brakes that started to overheat when they came down the other side. All the things that I write about in this blog, the behind the scenes stories at the race meetings, and also between the races, I think it all makes a better story than the racing itself.

1953; Alfa Romeo at Le Mans

Mercedes Benz 1955

In 1955, one of the most famous and distinctive of all transporters was produced when Mercedes-Benz engineer, Rudi Uhlenhaut, introduced this high-speed special, superbly built around a well-tuned Mercedes 300SL engine, drivetrain and suspension parts. It could cruise at 175kmh when it was empty and at a genuine 160kmh when it carried a car.

The 1957 Vanwall team who made the car for the legendary Stirling Moss, used the truck you can see in the picture above. It certainly doesnt look very glamourous.

1971 Team Tyrrell

Nurburgring paddock 1972

The stories of yesteryear may never be repeated as modern day trucks and the driving hours are regulated so much by law. The fantastic transporters that today, totally dominate the paddock areas, are worlds within worlds. The modern day tarmac or asphalt paddock areas have replaced those which were once covered with grass, often muddy, but endlessly interesting paddocks of the 1950s and 60s-with super-attenuated high tech offices and garages.
There is a very good book called " Inside the Paddock: Racing Car Transporters at Work" Written by David Cross. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Paddock-Racing-Transporters-Work/dp/1854432540
It is a fantastic read and has many stories and pictures showing how things used to be done and if my blog interests you, then this book will be even more interesting.