1 5-speed Allison automatic transmission: $25,000

4 new Bridgestone 275/70 radials with rear Bandag slick caps: $1500

6 replacement driveshafts: $2500

The impassioned thrill of taking
a 700-hp, 11,000-pound class-8 truck
up to 200 km/h: Priceless.

Priceless is one of the few words Ron Singer can find to describe the sensation when he’s sitting at the wheel of one of his old Macks. No, he’s not talking about a dry-bulk haul up Highway 1 east of Calgary. These trucks-a 1976 R-600 and a 1979 R-700-burn their rubber strictly on the racetrack, competing in the North American Big Rigs Tour at short-track ovals like Race City Speedway in Calgary, Saratoga Raceway in Campbell River, B.C., and Western Speedway in Victoria, plus four tracks in Washington State. The 6v92 Turbo Detroit Diesel-powered ’79 Mack, otherwise known as Truck #71, is a recent series champion.

“Truck racing is just an unbelievable thrill,” says Singer, president of Ron Singer Truck Lines, his own 25-truck fleet in Calgary. “The adrenaline rush is unexplainable. You can take any professional truck driver, put him in a Big Rig racing truck, and it will be an entirely new experience.”

Take a trip to Ron Singer Truck Lines and you’ll quickly see how racing and trucking is intertwined in the company culture. Much of Singer’s business staff, including his children, several company drivers, and his account manager (who races Truck #71), are also members of the racing team.

“One reason we got involved in racing is because it’s something you can do on the side but still involve the same principals that help you succeed at work,” he says. “You have to be organized, safe, and efficient team players. Racing actually helps us with our business.”

With so much enthusiasm for racing at the company, Singer learned early on to make a clear distinction between work and play during business hours. A few of Singer’s employees wondered aloud whether racing took priority over the company at times, so he moved his race trucks to a separate facility three miles up the road and made a conscious effort to split morning meetings, giving both business and racing issues separate time and attention.

However, these days, with competition in the trucking business getting tight and profit margins getting slim, Singer admits it takes more than just passion to run a successful business while simultaneously throwing at least $25,000 a year at a hobby. Singer justifies the expense by saying it carries long-term benefits for both his business and the overall industry. Racing, he believes, can do wonders for morale, especially these days, when the general public doesn’t exactly view truck drivers as white knights.

“You really see it when times are tough,” says Singer, who used to send his 25 company drivers and additional owner-operators to the Big Rig races. “It makes drivers feel like they’re part of something outside the walls of work. It develops that team spirit, that concept of winning. Winning doesn’t come by fluke, it comes by pulling together and working hard, and that’s the final payoff.”

Moreover, whether a driver is behind the wheel of a racing truck or watching it from the bleachers, Singer says racing breeds respect for driving skills, safety, and the equipment.
“That translates to the job on the road,” he says. “This industry has a horrible image. If you think Joe Public is going to help improve it, the joke’s on us. It’s up to us to improve our own image. I’m not saying truck racing is the final answer, but it’s not a bad place to start.”

Since Singer’s big win in the summer of 2000, concerns over safety, professionalism, and varying opinions over the long-term direction of the Big Rig series forced him to take a step back and consider other options. Although he wishes the best of luck to those who stick with the circuit and help improve it, Singer recently decided his trucks should soon be zooming past another checkered flag.

His quest for the bigger and better racing thrill led him to Las Vegas last year where he met with sponsors and organizers of the Super Truck Racing Association of North America about entering a team in STRANA’s much-anticipated truck racing tour, the ZF Championship Racing Series. Originally set to field its first grid of trucks this coming summer, the circuit was postponed while it looks for additional sponsorship, but Singer confirmed stakeholders are still meeting and ironing out details. Singer also said STRANA may extend the tour to Europe, where racing heavy trucks is immensely popular: the European Super Truck racing series attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year, and millions of dollars in sponsorship money from equipment manufacturers.

Despite skepticism that truck racing won’t garner anywhere near the same popularity in North America-especially since so many other professional sports compete for attention and entertainment dollars-Singer has no doubt the series can be successful with the right mix of sponsorship and commitment from the trucking industry. ZF Group and Bandag are two of STRANA’s first sponsors.

“More sponsors really have to step up to the plate,” says Singer. “However, for them to continue funding the series, the trucking industry has to return a safe and professional image back to them. If they’re going to have their name all over your truck, you have to give them some sort of return on their investment.”

Singer agrees that STRANA would be wise to take a page from successful circuits like Formula 1, the world’s most popular car racing tour. Companies that field racecars, many of them car manufactures, have exclusive business relationships with suppliers like Goodyear, Firestone, Honda, and BMW. They see the sport as both a proving ground for new technology and as a promotional vehicle for their automotive components.

There’s no reason similar arrangements couldn’t be worked out here for heavy trucks, Singer says.

“Sure, if you’re using virtually the same trucks as on our highways, why wouldn’t OEMs do testing on the track?” Singer asks rhetorically. “You want to test transmissions, ABS … why not test it on our race trucks? You’re going to find out results a lot sooner and get it approved a lot faster.”

Many think that if truck racing and STRANA are going to have success it’ll be in the American Deep South, where much of the culture is already geared toward auto racing. But Singer believes Canada-and the West, especially-is ripe for something more grassroots, an event that goes farther to reflect this country’s blue-collar culture. With hockey having disenfranchised so many fans with its multi-million dollar contracts and egotistical players, Singer just may be on to something.

Gentlemen, his engine has already started.