Truck Trophy 2017 – The exciting final – Part II

The Truck Trophy is only for strong team players. It ends with one single strong team – twelve friends.

Back on the river. It is the third morning. Minus 11 degrees, clouds – there's snow in the air. Back on to the drift circle once again – it must be possible! So – drive around the outer edge of the circular track, shift into 8 or 9 manually, then carefully depress the pedal so that the rear swerves out, and then countersteer. At the same time, don't slow down and stay in drift mode by minimally moving the accelerator pedal and steering wheel. Nicolae from Romania, who everyone calls Nico: "That moment is great when you stop driving and begin to drift. It's as if something big is happening!" Trainer Markus's instruction laps are making an impact: more and more of the participants are managing to hold the truck in a good solid drift for three quarters of a lap, a whole one, or even two or more. Then the contest. The first one to manage a drift for the maximum time of two minutes is Kevin. Big applause! And his team partner, Kris: "It went much better today. Of all my attempts, I was best during the competition. Now I'm truly in competition mode!"

Alexandru has been to Sweden many times and knows all about driving on snow and ice. He particularly likes the slalom. "Being in a slide around the cones in the tractor unit is like a dance on the ice. Straight away, it's always dangerous with a trailer when something slides somewhere!"

Teamwork counts.

There is something special on the programme now as a competition for the slalom: blind trust. That's only possible with teamwork! One person is given diving goggles with the glass taped. So he can't see anything. The other person directs him. "If you've got no orientation, you feel as if something will happen any minute." You really have to trust the other person completely," says Pascal, taking the goggles off.

Fortified with a salmon lasagne and salad, it's time for the next round. It's not easy to turn a 2x2 metre truck tarpaulin when six grown men are standing on it. But it's great fun, and the teams, each from three countries, give their all to be faster than the others. The Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium win!

Friends fry eggs.

But things still aren't decided because there are still two tasks to complete. The tug-of-war is won by the three-country team comprising Romania, Poland and the Netherlands. But then: fry an egg. Easy to do? Not if you first have to search for the egg which has been equipped with an avalanche search device and you have to make the fire yourself. Your tools are a log of wood, a knife, a flint and an underlay. Six men with digital receivers in their hands and snow shoes under their boots race off, repeatedly sinking up to their thighs in snow. Those that remain try to light a fire. Everyone starts by cutting up the log with the knife. But how small should the pieces be?

The men with the digital receivers are highly concentrated. There – Lodewijk seems to have something in his hand and he hurries back, taking huge strides. Lighting a fire is an art. Pascal's children are scouts and he has learned something from them. The solution is very small, thin chips and long swipes with the flint. It's burning! Now fast: move the fire out of the pan onto the underlay and get the egg into the pan – yeeessss, it'll be the tastiest egg in the world. Przem and Janusz from Poland are the next ones. The Swiss follow them whilst the others struggle on. However, the Truck Trophy has its own laws. The first three teams are hardly finished and they're already helping the others because making a fire is different with every log of wood. These aren't competitors at work, but friends!

Experience the action, control the trucks, master the challenges, be friends – Arctic adventures for drivers and trucks.

Creaking, cracking ice under the spikes. Six white Actros trucks roll onto the frozen river and quite a lot of cones indicate: everything is perfectly prepared. There's a concise briefing for the twelve finalists of the Truck Trophy 2017 and then time to get used to the new surface. The slalom course and drift circle are marked out and trainers Udo and Markus are on hand to provide support. "Driving the truck on ice without a 25-tonne load on your shoulders, is definitely something special," says Fabian from Switzerland. His team mate Andreas goes on: "I've just learned that in order to drift, I need to switch on the rear axle differential and deactivate ESP. You also have to change into the manual shifting mode. Otherwise, the transmission shifts up every time you take your foot off the accelerator and then you don't have enough power." Massive fun for the twelve drivers.

Jigsaw piece and spinning.

Everyone is feeling much stronger after the lunch break: time for the jigsaw puzzle competition. OK – put down the four corners first and then complete the upper edge. What can you recognise inside the radiator grille, headlamps; the Truck Trophy logo on the top-right. Team Germany has finished the edges and most of the inner pieces have been put in place. Alex murmurs quietly: "Registration plate ... no, we need a headlamp piece." There is tension in the air and the stopwatch is running. The Dutch have fewer unused pieces on the table. Piece after piece, the growing picture starts coming together. "Finished!" Twelve minutes, six seconds – that's a record! "I'm sweating buckets," says Pascal.

The Vindelälven, a river which flows around 400 km from the Norwegian border to its estuary in the Baltic, is a paradise for anglers in the summer months. And it is now the ideal playground for the Truck Trophy. Whilst some concentrate on the jigsaw pieces, others are out and about in the Actros. With perseverance, fun and undesirable spins, they practise drifting and slaloming.

Concentration, courage and strength.

Back to the hotel. It's been a full day until now, but the tasks are far from over! The projector beams 30 words onto the wall. Words like GigaSpace, driver's inn, Fuel Duel, and Active Brake Assist. Then the competitors are given a pen and three minutes to write down the terms. Everyone does well!

The twelve finalists subsequently make their way to the evening meal in snowshoes and bearing flaming torches. That is where the last exercise of the day awaits them: as the co-driver in a racing car, it is the participant who remains the coolest during an excitingly fast trip across the ice who wins. Everyone's pulse is measured. The highest reading is 191, the winner with a pulse of 92 is Andi from Switzerland – courage and strength are useful characteristics!

Animal tracks and heirs to the throne.

Time for lunch. The twelve finalists at the Truck Trophy 2017 need to gather some strength for the afternoon, when they will first have to complete the original Swedish Scavenger Hunt – a bit like a paper chase on skis. Very different skills are called for at the five stations. Who knows the line of succession to the Swedish throne? Only team Belgium. And Kevin and Kris lost points when naming the animal tracks. Who is the best shot? Poland is clearly in the lead. Lodewijk and Pascal win the animal call competition, while Nico and Alex from Romania win the points for estimating what a kilo of snow looks like. The men all return in a sweat. The leadership board has been completely mixed up. The difference between the team scores is minimal. The participants have completed 8 of the 14 tasks and all of them still have a chance to win overall!

And now for some more fun: time to put on snow suits and helmets before driving two and a half hours through the winter landscape of Lapland on a snowmobile. What a joy!

Photos: Sebastian Vollmert
Videos: Martin Schneider-Lau