Previous Editions of Latest News
The team comprising of Aussie’s Macklin, Middleton and Hewat
became unbeatable when Middleton would take first place in all of
the races. It would be remiss of me not to mention that kiwi
Lester was allocated to our team when Macklin suffered serious mechanical
failure and was unable to resume his place on the team.
For this reason, the team departed their various home ports to facilitate a Thursday trial on the track. Bobby the Builder flew out of Adelaide Wednesday where he was met by Big Al from Gough’s Palmeston. Terry drove down in his red u-beaut ute, his Dad Gary drove the KCL Contractors service vehicle laden with tools, Jeff drove Bob tail in the KCL prime mover, where he collected a trailer from TWL to tow the shipping container and truck around. Dave Kernohan would come down on Friday night with brother Murray Kernohan of Goughs Auckland and so too Kerry also of Goughs. Lauren would make her way down in the much relied upon traveling home/bus of theirs which was well and truly the catering machine at the track for not only our team but the other Aussie teams of Jeff Macklin and Beau Hewatt. Sally came down on her own steam and Krystal grabbed a ride with Gary. I got there Friday, late arvo and fortunately with all my luggage and a $155.00 excess baggage fee – the cost of getting more promo gear to the track!!
Friday – Practice Day (April Fool’s Day)
Saturday, 2nd April Saturday would see the running of a practice session, qualifying and Race 1 for the weekend. Practice was held at 9.45 where conditions were cool and windy. The track still had small pools of water around it as a result of overnight rains. The super trucks were the first category out onto the track, so water pools, combined with a cold track made for slippery conditions. Despite the super truck being taily with a lap time of 1.276 we were 2/10ths of a second quicker than main rival Porter and this would be the set up we would run with for qualifying. The qualifying session remained dry despite threatening cloud and overcast and windy conditions prevailing. Middleton found the super truck still taily and was dealing with the ABS braking system locking up.
Race 1 – Saturday Conditions for this race remained cloudy, windy and cold. The start was as per qualifying with Porter and Middleton on front of the grid. Into the first lap, Middleton would lead the race, when drizzly rain started making conditions very slippery and caused Bob to go a little wide allowing Porter to get underneath him. Middleton regained control of his Freightliner Supertruck regaining considerable ground on Porter and they would go through the chequered flag one truck length apart, with Middleton placed in 2nd place. Daniel from Gough’s had arranged two Gough Whiteline Racing promotional girls, Steph and Mya who would circulate the track, giving out Caterpillar freebies.
Sunday, 3rd April All teams were allowed a 9.45 a.m. warm up, practice session and thank goodness for us !! First lap, the ABS would go into complete lock up and would see Middleton in spectacular fashion save the Whiteline Racing Freightliner from major damage and disaster. It was found that the actual ABS switch had been knocked and turned off. There is no light on the dash to alert Middleton to this – which it has been decided that apart from this being part of the pre race, race check that electrical work be conducted so that a warning light illuminates. After settling, Middleton was able to put in a couple of good laps, but it did un-nerve him a tad !!!! Race 1 – Sunday
The race was restarted and Middleton was on the pace, when instantly he would lose considerable ground – he had snapped off the gear changed knob completely!!! Middleton would change the truck to auto where the truck would change gears itself, however, this would slow him down out of corners particularly. Despite this, he would make up considerable ground and finished 3rd for this race. On return to the pit, the gear knob was rewelded back into place. Race 2– Sunday
Race 3– Sunday Race 3 was part of the Trans Tasman Challenge which had commenced at the last round at Timaru. It would be decided over three races of three laps. All of these races, irrespective of where he started Middleton would win them all, with a spectacular finish in the third race, where he would be three wide on the track to take the win and the title away from New Zealand. In one of Middleton’s moves he would go through the middle of two trucks to take the lead, with only a breath between all three trucks – a very daring and exciting manoeuvre – one spectator declared that he must have melons, not balls !!
If ever a sponsor doubted the value of being associated with the sport, I guess the situation where I was approached by a man who questioned whether Caterpillar actually made truck engines and whether they were in fact in New Zealand. I naturally pointed out that the Super Truck that had just won those races was fitted with a Cat C 12 and yes the Caterpillar Truck market was huge in New Zealand serviced by Gough Dealers extensively on both islands. Race 4– Sunday
After the presentation and the next morning all the team dispersed back to where they came from – would have to say the small plane ride for Bob and myself back into Wellington was ‘interesting’. Wellington airport is renowned for strong winds and it certainly lived up to it’s reputation !!!!
Preparation is now underway to ship back the SuperTruck and container in preparation for the Aussie season, which is scheduled for Winton Raceway 30th April, 1st May, 2005. Yours
in racing and regards, Racing Photos Euon Cameron © 2005. Other photos Lauren Kernohan.
Previous Editions of Latest News March 05 Round 1: Timaru – New Zealand Championship Aug 04 Round 3: Barbagallo – Australian Championship May 04 Round 1: Mallala – Australian Championship Feb 04 Round 3: Pukekohe – New Zealand Championship Jan 04 Round 2: Manfield – New Zealand Championship Jan 04 Round 1: Timaru - New Zealand Championship December 03 : New truck finshed with only weeks to spare before Timaru race!
|
As
I mentioned, post Timaru the crew changed the Camshaft on the Whiteline
Racing, Cat Dealer Supertruck. The process would take the team
five hours. They were attempting to use a Cam from the US
that was a single turbo cam, replacing the twin cam developed by
ourselves to achieve greater performance. It was thought the US
technology may give greater results.
Thursday,
they took to the track to find the results they hoped for from the
cam weren’t there. No matter which file they ran, the
super truck was smoking excessively and had developed a miss. This
combined with erratic handling led to the decision to replace the
cam with the twin cam developed by ourselves. Given it was
a big job to replace it, it was decided to do this on the Thursday
rather than risk problems on the official race days. As a result
the Super truck was taken back into Palmeston, where Al arranged
for the Cam replacement at Gough’s workshop.
Last
event at Timaru was on an anti-clockwise track. Manfield is
a clockwise track for safety reasons . Therefore, any set up configurations
would be completely different for this meet. Manfield also has faster,
high speed corners and for this reason the front sway bar that had
been disconnected at Timaru was reconnected, the rear sway bar was
stiffened and tyre pressures adjusted. Middleton took to the track
at this stage doing times in the 1.28 region – much slower
than would ultimately be achieved as the weekend went on.
Third
practice, Middleton and the team decided that the set up was good
and what they would run with on Saturday. The truck was doing a
1.27 neat now. The team were forced to rectify an oil leak that
had developed from the compressor that bolts to the engine, this
was done by fitting a new helicoil. As this was being done, it was
noted a couple of the bolts had sheared threads within the
housing and gaskets needed replacing. With this out the way, the
team would dine at Al’s local haunt Jaspers.
Despite
this, with a minute left in qualifying Middleton was the fastest
truck out there, until Porter pitted making a quick adjustment and
returned to the track, pipping Bob for number one position for the
first race with only seconds of qualifying remaining. Due to
the session ending he was unable to return to the track to
attempt a quicker time. Middleton’s qualifying time was a
1.27.3 and would start alongside Porter.
Saturday
night the team would dine at Lone Star with special thanks to Murray
Kernohan and Goughs. Bobby the Builder would opt for an early night,
highly motivated to come away with wins on Sunday’s race day
and true to his word, he would not disappoint – read on !
Race
one was held at 11.00 a.m. in excellent weather conditions. The
start would be split, reverse grid, that is the quickest trucks
to the rear with a handicap gap between them and the slower trucks
– this always leads to interesting racing while the big guns
attempt to go through the slower traffic. Within the first lap in
the S’s mayhem would strike with Wheeler and Lester coming
together, with nowhere to go, Hewat and Hepburn both became casualties
and resulted in the race being red flagged. Middleton would
pass by without incident.
Race
2 was held at 1pm and was to be decided over 8 laps , again split
reverse rolling grid. Initially Little jumped started, with Porter
following – Middleton maintained his starting position thus
lost two places, however, Little would sustain a time penalty for
his actions. Not phased, Middleton would go all out to make up ground,
pegging off traffic, in the mean time Little and Porter would have
a coming together and Middleton would take advantage of the situation
taking the lead and the chequered flag – winning this race.
Needless
to say the reaction from the crowd was amazing – our pit area
and merchandise facility was inundated. Middleton took time to spend
with young race fans to sign posters and take part in television
interviews.
Race
4 was held at 5.10 and again handicap race, rolling start, reverse
grid. Middleton would peg off traffic through the field and
only one truck length would separate Porter and Middleton when they
crossed the chequered flag in what was again a very exciting finish. Middleton
would also clock up the fastest time of any competitor for the entire
weekend with a blitzing 1.25.436 – some two seconds quicker
than qualifying – Not bad hey.
Middleton certainly spent a lot of time on the podium Sunday collecting
sashes and it was fitting that he got a champagne drenching, especially
by Sally for his efforts. We were certainly a very proud team.
The
presentation evening for the Trans Tasman Championship and the internal
New Zealand Championship were held at the Highflyers club. Especially
rewarding was Lauren Kernohan receiving an award for her efforts
in looking after the entire Aussie contingent – an award well
deserved. Lauren has been like “mother-hen” to
us all with no request to hard or met with negativity. Thank
you Lauren. Also
especially pleasing was winning for Terry, Jeffrey and Dave –
our original and lasting crew.
Merchandise
sales and the public relations aspect of the weekend was again huge
and I must say it is at times overwhelming and humbling to think
that what we do can bring so much happiness for a moment and impact
so greatly on peoples lives. We had a visit from the track commentator
who reinforced this and congratulated the team on it’s presentation
and just how well we were supported. Cos you see this Aussie/Kiwi
team certainly has two homes.