TRUCK RACING
(^78) July 2019 Truck & Driver
I
t seems almost inevitable
that Luke Garrett would end
up in truck racing. His father,
Ross, was one of the
leading personalities on the
truck racing scene throughout
the 1990s and 2000s.
Ross started out in 1991,
participating in an ‘invitational’
event, and caught the racing bug
big time. A good friend, Nigel Fry
of Traction GB, introduced Ross to
racing and he ended up buying a
Foden 4000 powered by a
Perkins TX engine to the tune of
800hp. He even raced it in the
first European Championships in
1994, where many of his rivals
had no clue what his right-hand-
drive British truck was.
The sport tends to be a family
affair; Luke began attending the
truck races with his mother, and
then graduated to racing
go-karts. “I was really good at the
karting,” he recalls, “but that
stopped at the age of 16 as a lot
of my friends were into
motocross bikes. I got into that,
but unfortunately for me I wasn’t
anywhere near as good at it as I
was with the karts!”
For four years, Luke and
Ross didn’t see eye to eye when
Temporary accommodation: Luke stripped and rebuilt the truck in here over the winter!
it came to trucks and racing but,
when Ross was diagnosed with
cancer, father and son put their
disagreements behind them.
Best of friends
“It really hit home at that point.
We really valued our time and
had a great relationship – we
were the best of friends,” says
Luke. In 2011, aged 25, Luke
wanted to go truck racing but his
dad reckoned he wasn’t ready.
His answer was the same in
- In 2013 they attended a
race meet and Ross finally said
it was time to go racing.
Luke was exhilarated, and
they bought a race truck at the
end of that year. Sadly, at the
beginning of 2014, Ross passed
away aged just 60.
“I was devastated, and to
begin with I thought there was
no way I could do it now,”
explains Luke. “But racing was
my dad’s big passion in life – heThe cab roof is emblazoned with a
tribute to Luke’s late father, Ross