Truck Trophy 2017 – News flash from Sweden

Final spurt for the Truck Trophy title: top truckers, team players and new friends.

Andreas Niederhauser and Fabian Roth have won the Truck Trophy 2017 title. In an exciting finale, it was the two drivers from Switzerland who were a step ahead of the others.

The last day of the trophy was again spent at the wheel of a truck. The first task: drift challenge. A driver's dream! The participants accumulated as much drift time as possible on a given course. What did they need for a high score? Courage, more than anything!

Blind in the Actros.

During the second task, the teams proved how much they had grown to form one unit over the previous days. One participant sat at the wheel with his eyes blindfolded, whilst his colleague guided him through the course. "Its amazing how far you can get, if you can rely on the others," the participants said as they gave an impressive show of what teamwork is.

The drivers were able to collect further points in a truck race – however with a mini truck. Then came the "Tarpaulin Turnover" discipline: which group was able to turn over a tarpaulin – which they were standing on – the fastest, without touching the ground.

Raw eggs in the snow.

The last task was about finding raw eggs in deep snow. The truckers had an avalanche search device to help them. Once they found the eggs they had to cook them as fast as possible on a fire they made themselves.

12 winners.

In the evening there was a lot of pats on the back for the winners from Switzerland. All of their colleagues had the greatest respect for the performance of both truckers. Lodewijk Blokland and Pascal van den Oetelaar from the Netherlands won second place whilst third place went to the team with Przemysław Haber and Janusz Zalewski from Poland. However, all the participants in the Truck Trophy final felt like winners. Every one of them had driven themselves to a top-rate performance and had come together with their colleagues to form one international and committed team.

Everyone agreed: let's hope we meet up again soon!

The finalists of the Truck Trophy give a strong performance in the icy cold.

First, they bring the truck up to 70 km/h on the ice track and then fully apply the brakes. Where will the truck come to a standstill? Whoever's guess is the closest wins the most points. The very first task of the day caused a rush amongst the twelve drivers and required a great deal of trucking experience.

Performance at the limit.

Courage & strength, skilfulness & thinking skills, team spirit – these characteristics were also in particular demand during the individual disciplines held on the second day of the Trophy. When everyone was wide awake after the full brake application, the troop continued on skis. During a Swedish paperchase, the participants had to give a decent performance so as not to lose points.

The participants drove to the location for the last task of the Trophy day on snow mobiles. There, it was strength that was most important: a tug of war. Six against six. Another opportunity to collect points for the team score card.

The evening programme was considerably more relaxed. During bingo, the twelve truckers discussed the previous two days. The excitement about who would win the Trophy hung in the air.

Today is the last day of the final. Stay tuned and read tomorrow which team will fly home as the winner of the Truck Trophy.

The final of the 2017 Truck Trophy is in full swing. Six teams are in the race for the title.

The starting shot for the final round of the 2017 Truck Trophy has been fired. The six national teams from Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, The Netherlands, Poland and Germany were confronted with several difficult trucker tasks on the very first day of the final round.

A racing pulse on the co-driver's seat.

On the ice of a frozen river, the participants first raced against each other for the best time through a tight slalom course. Next came guessing heights and widths. From a distance of 20 metres, the drivers had to guess the total height of their truck and then drive under a bar set at an appropriate height. Following that, the teams took part in a trucker dictation and did a truck jigsaw puzzle – all timed, of course. The participants reached a special task at the end of a snowshoe hike. Above all, this demanded courage and strength: at full speed, the race taxi sped across the frozen course and the co-driver's pulse was taken. The lower the pulse, the more points were scored for the team.

Today, the next tasks are already on the cards. Stay tuned!

Starting shot for the third final round of the Truck Trophy: driving for points is in full swing.

The six driver teams of the 2017 Truck Trophy arrived in Sorsele, Sweden yesterday. Ahead of them are three exciting competition days, during which they will have to master a total of 14 tasks. The team with the most amount of points flies home with the trophy in their bag.

Shortly after their arrival, the twelve drivers from Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, The Netherlands, Poland and Germany used the team quarters to get to know one another. As part of a collective evening meal and subsequent get-together, the truckers shared their experiences from the preliminary rounds as well as their trucking knowledge with one another.

Team-building and preparation for the event were in central focus.

The Truck Trophy, of course, also stands for having a great time in good company as part of an international team of truckers. Clearly in focus on this first evening were the coming few days and the tasks to be tackled. Contenders spent a major part of the time trying to find out more about the procedures that will lead them to the trophy.

Today already, the first exciting tasks are on the cards for them.

Stick with us, you'll know more tomorrow!

Photos: Sebastian Vollmert
Videos: Martin Schneider-Lau