Safety cars are an amazing bit of kit. They’re sleek, powerful and fast enough to keep the race cars behind them to negotiate obstacles safely.
Well, usually. For British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) racers this season, the organizers will use a giant honking pick-up truck.
Dubbed the “TOCA Safety Team” truck, BTCC’s safety car is more an all-in-one rescue and recovery unit.
It’s based on a Ford F-250, which TOCA imported from the USA just for the purpose. In fact the idea itself came from the USA, where IndyCar and NASCAR uses pick-ups for recovery purposes. However, this will be the only vehicle of its type in Europe.
The truck will carry a crew of safety specialists and medics at all TOCA events. Along with the requisite medical supplies and equipment to treat casualties, the safety truck also holds specialist rescue gear.
This includes “the jaws of life”, in the form of a new “inclined cutter”. The hydraulic shears are purpose-built to deal with the state-of-the-art materials found in modern race car bodies and roll cages. This will make it easier for rescuers to extract trapped drivers, or for medical staff to access them. That certainly would’ve come in handy at the Croft pile-up last year.
TOCA has already put the truck through a number of test simulations. It will debut at the BTCC opening round at Brands Hatch on April 7, and is available in every session including support series.
BTCC series director, Alan Gow, said: “I’m incredibly proud of the new ‘TOCA Safety Team’ truck. It represents an investment of nearly £200,000 by TOCA and its partners, underlining our real and ongoing commitment to the very highest level of safety, rescue and recovery in UK motorsport.”
