2019 ETRL Super Truck Champion – Tony Phalen
Wins: 1
Podium Finishes: 4
Pole Positions: 1
Races Attended: 5
Congratulations on winning the inaugural Super Truck class in the 2019 ETRL Championship Series!
Since I ran the Series as well as ran IN the Series, I'm going to do this interview a little differently - more of a story about how this all came about and why I ran in the Super Truck class.
For multiple seasons now, I've been the Commissioner for the UF1 Series. This Series has been around since 2010 when a group of F1 enthusiasts got together to simply race F1 cars. While the racing format has changed slightly over the years, the overall vibe and excitement of this racing format has continued to pull people in to give it a try.
Shortly after the release of Tamiya's TT-01e Euro Trucks, we noticed a large increase in this class at the Tamiya Championship Series races. At each event, the Euro Truck class was by far the most attended, sometimes doubling the entries from the next popular class. That obviously meant that this class was popular and I began orchestrating another series that could incorporate this growing class.
My initial thought was to just create a Spec Truck class - basically a class that was modeled straight after the TCS ruleset. This would allow drivers that have their TCS-prepped trucks to run in the series with no modifications. It would also help Tamiya continue to grow this class in the off-season.
As with any racing class, there were a couple guys that were interested in going faster; the Super Truck class was formed. This allowed guys that have a 2nd truck (or, since they were so inexpensive, purchase a 2nd truck) to modify them for more speed; faster motors, stronger batteries, more efficient ESCs, etc. The only real hard rule was the look of the trucks; we wanted them to continue to look like Euro Trucks (bodies, tires, wheels, etc).
Now that the classes were created, it was time to decide on the racing format. With the positive feedback on the UF1 format, I decided to work that into the ETRL. Qualifying would be a single, quick 3-minute session; your best 5 laps (non-consecutive) would be averaged to pull your final seeding time. This has proven, in the UF1, to close up qualifying times dramatically! In typical qualifying, 1st-10th place could be separated by seconds - sometimes up to 15. In the UF1-style, we found that 1st-10th qualifying times could be UNDER 1 second! Yes, you read that right, qualifying positions would be separated by tenths or hundreths of a second! This made this format extremely exciting and made qualifying a big piece of the puzzle.
Mains would get a shake up as well. Instead of a single A main, we run triple mains. Each main is scored independently with everyone in a particular class being scored together. So, no matter what 'main' you're in (A, B, C, D, etc), you'd be scored according to your final time with everyone else in your class. That means you could, theoretically, win the overall main from the C run group (if your time beat everyone in the other run groups). After each main, you'll be assigned points and, after all three mains, your points total will indicate your overall finishing position for the day.
I also took a little time to do some additional research on real Euro Truck racing. One of the cool things they did that I thought I'd implement is the reverse starting grid. It's important in the ETRL to win the pole; you get an additional 1 point added to your daily tally. However, using the reverse starting grid made things a little more competitive at the start of each race. I like the idea - it seems drivers did as well. I've heard only positive things about it so far!
After the first race, I decided to throw my hat in the ring in the Super Truck class. There weren't many entries at the first event (it was a new class), but the excitement was there. Each race, more and more drivers started showing up with Super Trucks, including me. Running these things with a 21.5T motor was really fun, especially since the tires weren't the greatest and required some throttle control to successfully navigate the track. While I really enjoyed the carpet portion of the Series (my truck was really good!), I did have some gremlins to figure out. Thankfully the second half of the Season was outdoors and the issues seemed to work themselves out.
I did find, though, that running the Series and racing in it became quite difficult. Being a very competitive racer, I try and put 100% in at every event. Unfortunately that can cause the Series to suffer for the other drivers and I'm not ok with that. So, this will be my last season racing - 100% is going into running it!
Looking forward to seeing all of you next season!
I'd like to thank everyone who came out and raced in the ETRL as well as the following companies for supporting the Series:
• Tamiya USA
• Fast Eddy Bearings
• ProTek RC (distributed by AMain)
• Sharkbait Designworks (Body Painting)
• Revelation Raceway RC
• TQ Raceway