Mexican Dueñas aiming to blaze a trail in Goodyear FIA ETRC
Mexican Enrique ‘Harry’ Dueñas wants to do more than just fly his country’s flag in the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship.
Mexican Enrique ‘Harry’ Dueñas wants to do more than just fly his country’s flag in the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship.
The 34-year-old racer has set making his Goodyear FIA ETRC debut a key target within the next few years and is determined that his participation in the series is for the long term.
Having tested a Goodyear FIA ETRC-specification race truck for the French championship Buggyra Academy team at Nogaro in 2025, with guidance from former Goodyear FIA ETRC competitor and reigning national champion Téo Calvet, Dueñas is in talks over a competitive outing in the Goodyear FIA ETRC. He hopes to attend, as an observer, the collective test at Autodrom Most in Czech Republic later this month in his efforts to join the grid.
“It’s a risk to take but as a racing driver you always want to go further,” Dueñas said. “In Mexico the trucks I race are more like prototypes, they use gasoline engines. The truck racing in Europe is more pure [to the truck industry] because they are with diesel engines.”
That industry-relevant diesel technology has, however, evolved in recent years. Since 2021, the ETRC has run on 100 per cent sustainable biodiesel supplied by TotalEnergies, becoming the first FIA series to switch fully to a sustainable biofuel.
“For a personal experience I want to make one race and see what happens,” Dueñas continued. “If there is a chance, we will definitely take the chance. Even though it’s a very complicated thing to happen, the fact the European champion can go to the FIA Prize Giving ceremony and be with the Formula 1 champion is just crazy. I don’t know if all drivers think about this opportunity, but I just wish to be on that road, to put one foot forward, even if we don’t go far enough. With budget anyone can buy a truck and race it but I’m trying to do this from a long-term commercial perspective, and as a person with a lot of passion for racing.”
Dueñas and trucks are intrinsically linked, as he explained: “Mexico is the number one exporter of heavy trucks in the world, even more than China. Eighty-five per cent of those trucks go to the US and Canada so the industry is huge in Mexico. I’m actually a transportation guy, my family founded a transportation company in 1934, so I’ve been involved in trucks all my life and it’s something I really love to do. Truck racing is very fun and, in general terms, it’s very accessible. If you race a Porsche and crash the budget starts shrinking. In truck racing you don’t risk a lot of money so you can do more improvement.
“Racing in the ETRC would be like representing the transport industry of Mexico, we can speak about our big industry when we are in this championship. I want to add Mexican truck drivers and company owners to the conversation about truck sustainability and safety, it would be really nice. We’re also looking at getting the series on TV in Mexico.”
Two points shy of winning the Mexican Truck Racing Championship in 2024, Dueñas is ranked as one of the fastest truck racers in his country. He’s also raced karts, Volkswagen Beetles and in Formula Vee during what he has described as “a really nice career.”
Although he’s yet to race in the Goodyear FIA ETRC, Dueñas got a taster when he visited the Int. ADAC Truck-Grand-Prix at the Nürburgring last July as a guest of established German racer Clemens Hecker.
“That opened the door a lot and I felt like I really needed to come back,” Dueñas said. “Clemens has been very nice to me, and he understands what it represents to open the door, not just to a Mexican driver but to someone who is not used to the ETRC. That can lead to more drivers coming into the series, more sponsors. It’s going to be history if we make it because, if I can get to race, the path will be built and will work for other drivers.”
The seven-event 2026 Goodyear FIA ETRC season gets under way at Misano World Circuit in Italy from 30-31 May.
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