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1999 - THE YEAR'S RACING

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL SEASON FOR CATERPILLAR-TRD

3rd OVERALL IN DRIVERS AND MANUFACTURERS' CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 1999 FIA European Truck Racing Cup produced another exciting and fiercely contested season of competition - with the 11 events attracting a total audience exceeding half a million.

For Harri Luostarinen and the Chris Hodge Truck Racing Developments team this was another successful season - with the Finnish driver taking a total of 23 podium placings - including no less than 10 victories. The Caterpillar driver finished on the podium at least once at 10 of the 11 rounds of the championship - only failing to make the top three at the Austrian event.

At the end of the year Luostarinen was finally classified third overall in the Supertruck category of the European Cup with a total of 368 championship points - only four behind championship runner-up Alain Ferte - and 36 points clear of 4th placed Gerd Korber.

In the Manufacturers' Cup the single truck Caterpillar-TRD team scored a remarkable total of 78 points to take third overall - 8 points ahead of the five-strong factory DaimlerChrysler squad with their factory-backed Mercedes-Benz trucks!

The 1999 season started with some inconsistent results as the team worked hard to find the optimum set-up for the new truck; although Luostarinen had a third place at the opening meeting in Dijon (France) he ended the weekend holding a lowly eighth in the championship.

Two more third places at the second round in Barcelona (which followed just one week later) helped move the Caterpillar driver up one position - and by Round 3 at Misano (Italy) another trio of third places saw Harri climbing up to fifth in the rankings.

Improved results came in the shape of a second place the Circuit Paul Ricard - which propelled Harri up to third overall in the championship. But major problems at the new, high-altitude A1-Ring circuit in Austria (round 5) saw him slump back to 7th as the team experienced their first serious reliability problems.

Up to this point the hectic international calendar had prevented there being any opportunity for any extra testing of the Caterpillar-TRD Supertruck - but two valuable days of track time prior to the next European Cup event proved worthwhile. The efforts of the team were rewarded at the Nurburgring (Germany) where Luostarinen stormed to a third place in the first Qualifying race and fourth in the Cup race. He then took an amazing 'double' on the Sunday with wins in both the Qualifying and Cup races, defeating the factory MAN and Mercedes-Benz teams on their 'home' ground. These fantastic results - in front of a record 230,000 crowd - helped push Hari up to fourth in the overall championship standings.

One of the most important improvements to the truck's performance came mid-season with alterations to the maximum speed control; up to this time the Caterpillar-TRD truck had been losing one of two kilometres per hour on top speed to the German trucks - which cost valuable points on several occasions.

Round 7 in Finland presented the Caterpillar-TRD team with an unusual problem; not enough braking power! The truck certainly was quick enough aound the Alastaro circuit - but lack of suitable brake pads saw Luostarinen suffering brake fade after just two or three full-speed laps. Skillful driving saw Harri take one third place in the Qualifying race - but the longer Cup races required a more cautious approach and he had to be content with a pair of 7th places.

This meant that the Caterpillar-TRD team approached their 'home' race at Donington Park (England) back to seventh overall in the championship. Luostarinen soon made amends for the disappointing results in Finland - winning both the Qualifying and the Cup races on the Saturday at Donington. The second day saw fifth and fourth places - enough to leave Luostarinen as top scorer for the weekend - and moving him up to fifth in the championship.

Round 9 took the team into Eastern Europe - for the race at Most in the Czech Republic. Again Luostarinen and the Caterpillar-TRD were on good form - wins in both the Saturday and Sunday Qualifying races were backed up with strong second places in both the Cup races. A total points haul of 50 for the weekend helped to move Harri up to fourth overall.

One week later and the team were in action again at the Zolder circuit in Belgium - where Luostarinen added another 50 points to the his tally to move up to second overall in the championship. An enormous crowd of over 60,000 saw the Caterpillar-TRD truck dominate the first day with wins in both the Qualifying and Cup races. A pair of third places the next day confirmed that Luostarinen was back on top form and poised for a close fight with factory DAF driver Alain Ferte for the runner-up spot in the championship.

The final event of the season at Jarama in Spain started well for Harri; in the first Qualifying race he was running a strong second - headed only by new champion Fritz Kreutzpointner (MAN). But a 'grabbing' front brake disc saw him sliding off into the gravel, dropping him to ninth at the finish - and handing third place to Ferte. The Caterpillar-TRD driver was then faced with the unpleasant task of having to start the Cup race from the back of the grid. From there he fought hard to climb up to seventh - but Ferte had scored another valuable 15 points with second place.

The Sunday in Spain provided plenty of excitement for the 60,000 crowd - with one man and one machine dominating the front of the grid; Harri Luostarinen and the Caterpillar-TRD Supertruck.

After taking 'pole' position in practice there was no stopping Harri - he led both the Qualifying and Cup races from start-to-finsh - with 1999 champion Kreutzpointner having to be contest with a pair of second places. But - unfortunately for Luostarinen - Ferte took his DAF to third place in both races - and this was enough for the Frenchman to stay ahead of Luostarinen by a margin of just 4 points after no less than 44 individual races!

But the final four meetings of the season had seen the Caterpillar-TRD Supertruck consistently running at or near the head of the field; even champion Fritz Kreutzpointner took time out to praise the outstanding performance of the Caterpillar-TRD team as he collected the FIA Cup.

During the 1999 season every race of the FIA European Cup was broadcast to an enormous worldwide television audience; a total of over 1 billion viewers in no less than 42 countries (plus newsreel exposure).

Caterpillar-TRD have maintained their incredible record of performance and reliablity; the only team to finish in the top three in both the Drivers and Manufacturers' championship in each of the past three years.

During the 1997/1998 and 1999 seasons the truck and driver made a total of 128 starts - winning 27% of the races and finishing on the podium (top three) in 52% of the events.

But as Harri Luostarinen said after the final race of the year;

"Only one number is right for me and the Caterpillar-TRD team... we'll be working hard through the winter and all next season to ensure we get back the Number 1 plate!".