Previous Editions of Latest News
A wild and wooly night would precede Saturday’s practice and qualifying. Strong winds and rain made for ‘sluggy’ pit conditions. Our pit area tents and annexes survived, but the crew had the spades out filling holes and re channeling the water away from the pit working area. In the practice session the gearbox computer was going up to fifth from fourth gear on it’s own, however, despite this Middleton was still achieving quick laps in fact was a second quicker than Friday. Larger diameter tyres were fitted to the back of the truck and almost had the effect of making a gear change. Middleton was clocked by the track radar policeman, Locky at 162 klms. Middleton was obviously chuffed about this as the trucks are governed to 160 klm. Bob was not alone though, with Porter also clocked speeding well into the high 160’s.
The
boys in blue would again zap us and a couple of the laps were disallowed
for speeds of 161 on laps 7 and 8, this is despite the fact that
the taco card and computer readouts showed no speeds in excess of
159. Post qualifying it was discovered we had a broken right hand front brake rotor which was repaired prior to the team’s departure from the track Saturday night. Another night of heavy rain falls on Saturday night would settle the dust for Sunday’s main race day. The warm up practice session 9.30 would see Middleton the quickest truck by a country mile. By race one, the sun was out with the odd cloud keeping things cool. Porter and Middleton starting off alongside one another enjoyed an uneventful race with Bob gaining on Porter but not quite enough power to finish it off and would have to settle for second. Even though we gained some boost with the new intercooler system we still could do with more power down low. Good lap times maintained throughout the race in the 1.16’s.
Well race two would turn out to be horrific. A handicap race that saw Porter and Middleton supposedly 23 seconds behind the first group of trucks for the start. The idea is the first group of B grade trucks take off at the drop of the green flag, then the A grade trucks 16 seconds after group one, then the super trucks another 7 seconds after that, however, group 2 went into race mode with group 1 and the super trucks doing the right thing and waiting until they reached the start finish line never had a hope of catching any of the field. However, race two was cut short when Cedric Abernethy lost control of his Mack in spectacular but sickening fashion, rolling end on end and breaking through two safety fences before coming to a stop. You all may recall Cedric had major repairs to do after Fielding, but what remains now is a mangled mass of steel. Taken by helicopter to hospital, Cedric at last report had sustained a crushed knee cap, injuries to his other leg where it is believed the steering column went straight through his leg, and a broken arm. After the accident at the scene he was coherent enough to swear about the state of his truck.
Bob the Builder in the Whiteline Super Truck No. 15 would finish second in the series and our team was voted the best presented crew and truck at the presentation event. The presentation night gave Middleton plenty of opportunity to acknowledge our wonderful crew and the incredible assistance of Gough throughout New Zealand, in particular at the Auckland round, Terry, Murray and Daniel. We also had a chance to ‘razz-up’ Terry Honey Bee who was celebrating a birthday.
Spec Intercoolers, Truck and Trailer the Freightliner dealer were fantastic in supplying intercoolers, Goodyear for supplying Dean as our tyre fitter for the weekend and Samco Sport built special air cleaners for the twin turbo installation and lots of hoses, clamps, fittings etc. to complete the package. These air cleaners made a significant power increase. The super truck and the container with the spares have all been thoroughly cleaned to meet quarantine requirements and will set sail for the Aus assult. Bob went and saw Cedric on the Tuesday after the racing prior to his return to Australia and whilst in a lot of pain, should make an excellent recovery. He and his team had discussed plans to race in Aus starting off in May at Mallalla, but for obvious reasons this is now on the back burner.
Special thanks to Euan Cameron (euan@cameronphoto.co.nz) for Image Two.
Previous Editions of Latest News 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!
|
Post
Fielding (Round 2), the crew went into overdrive
to manufacture and install a new intercooler
to give the Gough Freightliner the increased boost
it badly needed to help with powering out of corners. Three intercoolers
later, the team was successful and it was estimated that the truck
would now have six pounds more boost. The two previous intercoolers
when put under load, literally cracked and blew apart when the engine
was running and the intercooler was pressurized. At Friday practice
the Freightliner Super Truck had greater power and the ‘taily’
handling was rectified by stiffening up the front sway bar and instantly
gave the supertruck a pick up of two seconds per lap.
The
qualifying session on the Saturday would prove interesting, first
lap out of the pits the abs braking failed nearly placing Middleton
into the wall – a massive lock up and lots of dust later he
survived unscathed. The truck had also developed push and due to
the traffic was continually baulked not allowing the opportunity
to really ‘go for it’ and grab a clear lap. The gear
selection problem continued with the Supertruck going from third
to fifth on its own. 
Between
races, Middleton - accompanied by his Gough “Bob the Builder”
promotional girls - went to the poster signing session. The
girls, both blond with black minis with Bob the Builder’s
name on their ‘butts’, romper stomper shoes and racing
shirts were certainly creating waves and popular with the male race
fans at the track. 
The
crash caused severe damage to the track barriers, so much so, track
officials cancelled all further truck races deeming the track unsafe
for drivers, officials and spectators. The track was closed for
a couple of hours whilst a tyre wall was erected to allow the car
categories to complete their rounds. The trucks at the end would
do a couple of demonstration laps with the Caterpillar ute, full
of the Whiteline Racing team in the back, following behind. 
I
guess the final celebrations were tinged with sadness as the truck
racing category although competitive on the track, are very close
off and the comradeship between all involved is quite unique.