Truck Racing & More

ChampTruck is ready to go for 2015. That’s right, semi-truck road racing is coming back to the USA, and this time, the rules are set up to make it an economical sport for the truck enthusiast. In fact, the promoters say you can build a truck for $25,000. Semi-truck racing started in Europe back in the 1980s, then spread to South America, and is now the largest segment of pro motorsports in those countries. Some 50,000-170,000 spectators swarm to the tracks over a three-day weekend just to watch the big rigs race – and now you can, too!

The first race of the ChampTruck World Series will be held at New Jersey Motorsports Park on April 24-26, 2015. After that, nine more races will be held throughout the year at Thunderhill Raceway Park in California (May 22-24), Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado (May 29-31), Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina (July 3-4), Gateway Motorsports Park in Illinois (July 17-19), Virginia International Raceway (August 7-9), Texas Motor Speedway (August 28-29), Michigan International Speedway (September 11-13), Portland International Raceway in Oregon (October 2-4), and Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Nevada (October 30-November 1).

ChampTruck Racing will be based on stock OEM semi-trucks and very few modifications are allowed to be done. This keeps it more affordable and more competitive – the promoters want the racing to be close and exciting from the green flag to the checkered flag! You can build your own truck or they will build one for you. To find out more about this upcoming exciting series, visit www.champtruck.us.com today. Once there, you can download the rules, read a little background about the series and its promoters, and see the complete schedule of events. You can also follow them (ChampTruck) on Facebook. I am excited about being involved in this series, and hope you are too!

Road racing is where my original “claim to fame” came from. Nelson Ledges Road Course in Warren, Ohio was my home track and I held the track record there from 1973 through 1979. I quit racing in 1977 when I got into the diesel engine business, but my record held for two more years. If you have never been on a road racing course, you are missing a tremendous experience and the ultimate high (without chemicals) that you could ever imagine. After the race, you will be so high that you just might have to climb out of the truck and lay in the grass until your body comes back down to earth.

Jackie Wormley, this type of truck racing is for you. I know you could show these men the fast way around the track. For those of you who don’t know who Jackie Wormley is, she is based out of Minnesota and is a tall, attractive blonde who drives and maintains her own FLD Freightliner. Her truck is powered by a Pittsburgh Power 12.7 Detroit that packs a whopping 800 horsepower, yet she drives at 58 to 62 mph on the level to save fuel. However, she WILL use her power to spank men on the mountains! Her truck is spotless – she doesn’t wear shoes in her truck and she KNOWS how to make money with it. We hope to see you out there at the truck road races, Jackie.

The Pittsburgh Power engineering center now has its engine dyno up and running. With no driver pushing on the accelerator, no drivetrain loss and no rolling resistance on the tires, an engine dyno provides much more accurate flywheel horsepower and torque data than a chassis dyno ever could. Also, an engine dyno can be completely computer-controlled, so there is no “human error” when the engine dyno computer is running an automated test. This allows us to run research and development projects and emissions tests to a much higher standard. We now have tests that can explore not just performance at full throttle, but also performance at, say, thirty percent, fifty percent and seventy percent load. This allows us to explore an engine’s performance map in the lower torque settings, where they typically run, and where they make fuel mileage.

This one new addition to the engineering center greatly improves our emissions lab, as well. We are currently performing additional emissions testing on all of our products using the engine dyno, which allows us to better follow EPA 1065 and EPA Part 86 procedures to be certain they DO NOT increase the overall emissions emitted by the engine. With this process, we are one step (or one leap) ahead of everyone else producing performance products for big trucks!

This month, we also acquired some new equipment for the shop. Since we moved to our new location about eight years ago, we went from being just an engine shop to being a full-service truck facility. We have been installing a tremendous amount of Lipe clutches and transmissions. Driveshaft rebuilds and exhaust work are also still on the rise, too. So, to facilitate our technicians, we recently purchased a four-post truck lift and, wow, we are already surprised at how much we use it. Every day there is a truck up in the air, and it’s amazing how much faster the underneath work can now be performed. In fact, the lift has been so busy, we just might purchase another one. We are very serious about the work we do to your truck here at Pittsburgh Power. If you have any comments or questions, I can be reached at (724) 360-4080 or via e-mail at bruce1@pittsburghpower.com.