Mobil en Colombia via YouTube Semi-truck racing has been a thing for decades, and rightfully so. There’s just something extra entertaining about watching vehicles not built to go fast hit the track. It’s definitely a niche within the niche that is motorsports, but nonetheless there are semi-truck racing series all around the world. And this might be the craziest of them all. Held in Colombia every year since 1988, the Gran Premio Mobil Delvac isn’t just a race for semi trucks. It’s a test of skills the drivers also use on the road. Drivers lap the Autodromo de Tocancipa road course with trailers attached. They also have to negotiate slaloms and stop boxes like you might normally find on an autocross course. That kind of precision likely comes in handy on the streets of Bogota. Mobil en Colombia via YouTub As far as we at The Drive know, there isn’t another event like this. There are plenty of established semi-truck racing series where professional racers in modified tractors compete on road courses, and there’s some circle-track racing as well. There are also drag races and sled pulls that put the pulling power of trucks to the test in a straight line. But we can’t think of another race where semi trucks actually pull trailers while lapping a road course. The drivers don’t appear to be professional racers, either. Any trucker who buys a five-gallon bucket of oil from sponsor Mobil is eligible to enter, and the company claims 150 drivers showed up for the most recent race, held at the end of July. It’s kind of a throwback to the early days of NASCAR, when many racing drivers still had day jobs. Mobil en Colombia via YouTube Sponsor decals aside, the trucks also aren’t the highly modified machines that compete in other semi-truck races. Most fuel-system components are unrestricted, but turbochargers are more tightly controlled. Only certain turbos are allowed for certain engines, and tricks like variable geometry, ceramic bearings, and water cooling are prohibited. Nitrous oxide is also illegal, and all trucks must have six axles, with both rear drive axles engaged for the race. Past livestreams are available on YouTube if you want to check out a very different kind of racing. There’s plenty of weird and wild stuff out there beyond the big-name series, which is part of what makes motorsports so cool.
