Smith fired up for Goodyear FIA ETRC Chrome title push as Taylor bids for back-to-back success
Bradley Smith will start the 2026 Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship at Misano, Italy, later this month aiming to go one better in the Chrome title chase.
Bradley Smith will start the 2026 Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship at Misano, Italy, later this month aiming to go one better in the Chrome title chase.
In his rookie Goodyear FIA ETRC season, Smith lost out on Chrome title success by three points to his fellow British racer Mark Taylor during the winner-takes-all Jarama finale last October.
But with a full season of experience under his belt and a switch to the MAN race truck Antonio Albacete drove to two outright victories in 2025, Smith is aiming even higher ahead of the upcoming seven-event Goodyear FIA ETRC season.
“We lost the title in the last race of the season, so it’s put a fire in me to up my game this year,” Smith said. “Hopefully I'll go for the Chrome championship, be competitive, be reliable and do my best. But everyone’s upped their game in Chrome this year. John Newell finished really strong last year, Mark Taylor is flying, Lukas Hahn is out there this year. Emma Mäkinen is coming to join us, and Luis Recuenco has a new truck, so it's going to be a very tight race this year.”
Smith, who will compete for his self-run team this year, got to try out his new-for-2026 race truck during unofficial testing at Autodrom Most last month and relished the experience.
“It’s proven to be fast so I’m very happy with it,” Smith said of the Team T Sport Bernau-developed MAN. “I set my best ever lap times around [Most], so it’s all we can do this year. We had a few teething problems, but they were all solved and on the third day we had no issues so it’s looking good for Misano.”
Chrome-ranked drivers have less experience and fewer top results than their Titan category counterparts. In addition to Smith and Taylor, Steffen Faas, Luke Garrett, Clemens Hecker, Stefan Kursch, John Newell and Luis Recuenco have signed up of the full 2026 Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship as Chrome drivers.
Having taken top Chrome honours in 2025, Taylor admits he’s been counting the days to the start of the new Goodyear FIA ETRC season with the 2025 finale at Jarama in Spain concluding on 5 October.
“It’s been a long time since Jarama till now, so it’s just to get back into it,” Taylor said during the three-day Autodrom Most test in April. “We knew from last year, from finishing the season, we just want to carry on racing again. The aim for this year is, fingers crossed, the same as last year but without the DNFs. Last year we had a good season, but we had seven DNFs, what was quite a lot. But if we can get rid of that, we can have a good finish like the last one.”
Misano World Circuit in Italy hosts the Goodyear FIA ETRC season opener from 30-31 May. Click HERE for the latest ticket news.
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