The T1 Prima Experience - From Highways To Race Tracks

There I was strapped into the passenger seat of a race machine, all set for a couple of laps at the fantastic MMRT. It isn’t a tight and light race car I’m in, this was a race truck - the T1 Prima. At the helm of the truck is Rohan, one of the many driving instructors, who does a pretty good job of making my memories flash before my eyes. What do the race trucks feel like, you ask? Well, they're fast, loud and have ridiculous amounts of body roll (because physics) through the bends. But, this wasn’t the first eye-opener of the day

Earlier that day...

Realisation number one was this was more than just about racing. I see a sharp twinkle in Malkeet’s eyes as he talks about his experience. A lean albeit well-built young Sardarji, he is a father of a four-year old. “I never let my child know I drove trucks for a living”, he said, fearing his kid would spill the beans at the school he attended, causing him to be ousted. “In our society, ‘drivers’ are considered low-class”, chirped in Jagat. Clearly there’s still a lot of stigma around being an Indian long-haul truck driver. 

Among the core pillars of Tata’s Truck Racer Program (TRP), is to quell the negative aura that surrounds the trucking profession. The numbers are proof that it isn’t just an undesirable profession to have. It isn’t just the drivers that want out -- the second generation owners of the dealerships and trucking business owners want to make a living in a way that’s slightly posh. Through racing, Tata wants to make it clear that no profession is bigger (or better) than another. It’s their version of ‘Make Trucking Great Again!’

Has it worked? Yes, it has. “I now proudly tell my son I don’t just drive trucks for a living, I RACE them!” adds Malkeet. The first edition of the Racer Program has turned his life around. It’s a similar story with Jagat, who says winning the previous edition of the championship has earned him respect in his circle. “No one was ready to marry me,” exclaimed Nagarjuna – the other winner of the 2016 edition. Within ten days of returning home a champion, he had multiple offers to consider. The room broke into a light-hearted chuckle, as we shifted focus onto the races themselves.

Tata’s T1 Truck Racing Championship has been outdoing itself year on year since its inception in 2014. The viewer base has doubled through the years – the 2016 season had over sixty thousand spectators cheering on, as the race-spec Primas ripped across the Buddh International Circuit. Last year was a tad more special since it marked the debut of Indian truck drivers in the Championship. A batch of 16 drivers were handpicked from a pool of 500 nominations, after being put through rigorous training. By the looks of it, the racing bug seems to have bitten the trucking community – Tata claims it got over 3,300 nominations for this year’s program. 

The program sources its ‘racers’ through nominations made by key Tata customers, major customers of other brands, and referrals by the racers themselves. 200 drivers were shortlisted from the pool of three thousand plus, which will eventually be narrowed down to 10 finalists post 4 levels of training. The four levels comprise of everything from theory lessons to physical training and, of course, a bucket load of hot laps on the track. Drivers start off driving a Xenon, and migrate to the bigger Tata Ultra before getting their hands on the Prima.

Not so Primadonna 

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“We race what you buy”, said an animated UT Ramprasad (Head of Marketing Communications, Tata CVs) when we quiz him about the race-spec trucks. There’s a lot that’s gone in to make the Prima race-worthy, but it still features the same engine, same gearbox and the same axles that the road-going version is sold with. Tweaks include a revised suspension setup, upgrades to facilitate better ventilation and of course, a lot of weight reduction. The cabin is stripped bare to include just a couple of bucket seats with 5-point racing harnesses, and a smaller diameter steering wheel. There’s an FIA approved roll-cage, and the brakes are water-cooled to keep fade at bay. All aggregates of the 8.9-litre Cummin-sourced diesel engine remains untinkered, save for an aggressive map on the ECU. Since there’s no trailer attached, the motor is mapped for outright acceleration rather than load lugging. The race-spec truck is supposed to make 10PS over the road-going versions, at 380PS. 

Like nothing else

The whole feeling of sitting a good ten feet off the ground and blitzing across the track is something that has to be experienced first-hand. The fat 315/70 R22.5 tyres squeal and scream as Rohan goes through C1 flat out. The track itself is peppered with cones near the kerb to act as braking markers, and even through corners, to force the trainees to tighten their lines. Our man waltzes through them with the finesse I'd struggle to have with a compact hatch. The truckers are in good hands for sure, I mumble to myself while having my head hurled backwards as we approach the final corner leading to the pits. A couple of minutes in the race-spec Prima is all it took for us to be psyched about the Championship, that unfolds on March 19.

There's a bit of a twist to the season this year, as Tata Motors will add a ‘Champion Class’ race to the equation. This will see the top ten Indian drivers from last season battle it out one more time. The regular ‘Super Class’ will feature a fresh batch of ten drivers who graduate from the TRP 2.0 this year. As usual the ‘Pro Class’ will take place as well, with 12 professional international truck racers going head-to-head at the Buddh International Circuit. 

These, of course, are just baby steps Tata Motors is taking to establish the truck racing scene in India. And with the way things are shaping up, we don’t think it will be long before we see a Tata factory team battling the biggies in international championships.