Following Iveco’s titular triumph at the Dakar Rally in January, the heat is on at the 2016 FIA European Truck Race Championship, where an MAN team has topped the podium every year since 2010.
For the last two years, the competition was been won for MAN by Norbert Kiss, one of the most successful Hungarian speed race drivers, but in 2016 the reigning champion is with Mercedes-Benz.
The driver of Team Schwabentruck, which Iveco has provided with two Stralis race trucks, is Germany’s Gerd Korber — triple European Truck Race Champion for the years 1996, 2001 and 2003.
He and his teammate, Markus Altenstrasser, will be behind the wheel of a competition-ready Stralis 440E56, weighing 5.5t and equipped with an Iveco Cursor 13 engine providing 1,150hp to reach speeds of up to 160kmph.
Iveco remains an underdog in the race compared to MAN, which is supporting eight separate teams in the race, alongside one other Mercedes-Benz entry, a Scania team and two Freightliners driven by Buggyra International Racing System — the champions from 2007 to 2009.
For the current season, a new Stralis has been developed for Korber, featuring the latest technical and aerodynamic solutions, and put through an intensive testing programme by the team at the Most circuit in the Czech Republic and the Magirus test track in Ulm, Germany – the location of Iveco’s engineering centre for developing its heavy truck range.
Pierre Lahutte, Iveco Brand President, says: “We are proud to continue our strong association with Team Schwabentruck. This is a great opportunity for Iveco to showcase the quality, durability and performance of our product, as well as to connect with the brand’s fans across Europe.”
