In uncharacteristic weather conditions when compared to the mud, rain and sludge of previous years, Timaru’s racing meeting would prove to be a scorcher. Temps were up into the high 30’s at the track and what was normally mud was dust.

Timaru for those who haven’t been there is a quaint little town, 160 odd klms south of Christchurch. All hotels, motels and alike all adorned ‘No Vacancy’. New Zealanders certainly love their motorsport and die hard enthusiasts had traveled long and far to be there.

As well as the trucks was the New Zealand V8 series – Holden and Ford so this combined with trucks as well as other categories was value for motorsport fans. The team from Oz comprised of Bob, Shaz and Mark Peacock. Our original crew in New Zealand of Jeffrey, Dave, Lauren and Debbie Kernohan, together with Terry and Gary Honey and Big Al from Palmeston rounded out the crew. Beaurepaires fitter ‘Jerm’ was enlisted for the meet.

When we first laid eyes on the truck, we gathered that the seas on the journey from Oz were rough – she was covered in sea spray and some of the bolts had even started to rust – nothing that couldn’t be fixed though. Also, the spares and equipment in the container were upended and trashed all over the place, so no guessing what the first job would be. Once unloaded, much to the dislike of local farmers, Bob the Builder used a country road to do a few quick ‘blaps’. A couple of these farmers mind you, had paddocks open on the weekend for parking charging $5.00 a spot – I’m sure that softened things up.

Thursday evening was a Team and sponsors event held at the local brewery.
Thursday was full of pomp and ceremony with a street parade of the supertrucks down the main road of Timaru. It’s fair to say that most of the township seemed like they were there and judging by the autographs and posters given out, this would probably almost be true !! The event had sold all the pre-printed tickets by mid week placing the track committee and promoters under pressure to get to it with printing more.

Friday was practice day – with three sessions scheduled.
Obviously dealing with an untested, straight off the assembly line supertruck we were bound to encounter a few technical issues. The truck had developed a serious vibration in the steering. The vibration was so great that when the ‘Builder’ applied the brakes the steering wheel would almost jump out of his hands. Best they could do would be to make adjustments to the alignment and front end, however, the real fixit required, which will need to be done in the time prior to the next round is manufacture and fit a steering damper. The parts required were not available in Timaru, so right from the start, Bob knew he would need to drive allowing for the problem.

We also were again experiencing problem with smoke from the trucks exhaust. In Supertruck racing only so much smoke for a certain period of time is allowed to be emitted. Teams not addressing the smoke issue can be fined or even disqualified. Controlling the smoke is all about experimenting with computer files to download a winning formula for the supertruck, on that day, that race and under those conditions. The perfect file for one race can be completely different for the next race. As a result an exhaust was devised for the back of the truck channeling smoke into the air – looking a little agricultural again given the limited resources was the best the team could do.
Other than this, Bob would be forced to back off the power to reduce the smoke. Having said all of the above, the truck was putting in excellent lap times within 200ths of a second of the pole sitter, Porter.

Saturday a testing session was held at 9.15.
Today the team would find the track slippery – which with the heat and cars having used the track this makes sense. This session the truck was a half second quicker than Friday, but the vibration problem under brakes was ever present. The team decided to try changing the roll centre to help eliminate ‘push’. Qualifying held at 1.15 pm would still see a continuance of handling and balance problems which even in a truck not new is an ongoing experiment.

Bob the Builder would qualify in second just pipped by Porter.
Porter doing a 1.20.059, Middleton 1.20.288.

The afternoon race at 3.52 did not account for points in the championship but was more a demonstration for the crowd. Middleton starting at the back of the field with a 25 second handicap would use this to further test the truck for the main race event on the Sunday. All trucks were obviously thinking alike as lap times were much slower than qualifying and practice for that matter.
Sunday the trucks were given a warm up session at 9.15a.m. Middleton was a second quicker than the previous day, however the ‘push’ problem was nagging him. If ‘push’ develops the driver needs to back off otherwise will run off the track.

What Bobby was finding was that the truck would turn okay, but mid corner would ‘push’. Jumping on the power too hard was resulting in a loose back end. Smoke issue had raised its head again resulting in Middleton backing off to stay out of the eyes of officials. The team decided it would try more tow out to help remove the vibration in the steering. These meets are strange in terms of how the races are started also. There is a strong emphasis on qualifying your best time, however, you only get to use this qualifying time to your advantage once. The rest of the races you are not only placed rear a field when you’re the fastest, but also handicapped – as much as 25 seconds – that’s a lot of ground to make up, especially if you are not firing one hundred percent. It’s all designed around action as the guns make there way through the pack for the crowds.

Race 2 was held at 10.00 a.m. with Bob finishing in 2 with a quicker lap time than qualifying yesterday – doing laps of 1.19.822. More of the same problems, but we also had a cracked aftercooler which results in power loss on top of this stones and debris had hit and cracked the windscreen.

Race 3 for the trucks was at 12.07 p.m. and starting rear of field with a handicapped time, Bob managed to make his way into fourth still doing times quicker than qualifying of 1.20.264. When you start rear field the trucks are two and three wide, passing is not easy – passing with no damage is even harder. We’re still trying to sort out a new truck without rebuilding senseless damage.

Race 4 for the trucks was again hectic and bad for the nerves at time making way through slower traffic to secure another second place. Lap times again under qualifying, but still having to contend with handling issues.

A non championship points race was again held as a final event for the day to give race fans one last look at the mighty trucks. Again with severe handicapping and given that the race was no benefit to improving his position in the series, Middleton was happy to use the race for testing.
So for the weekend, 2 x seconds and a 4th.

Bob is now spending a week in New Zealand with the crew to devise and implement technical changes to the supertruck to hopefully rid her of the ‘new truck’ teething problems. Again very popular with the crowd, Middleton received excellent press coverage both in the written media and by way of interviews.

We’ll touch base after Round 2, in the meantime thank you to all of our sponsors and supporters for cheering No. 15 over the line.

Official race results show Bob the Builder running 2nd in the championship!

Yours in racing and regards,
Shaz

Previous Editions of Latest News

December 03: New truck finshed with only weeks to spare before Timaru race!