A cold snap had brought Antarctic-style conditions to the Alpine region of Victoria. The mercury plummeted to -6’ over the weekend and started the Saturday with a frost that blanketed everything in sight. Layers of wool adorned everyone with any part of the body exposed to the brisk conditions were changing to a pale blue.
The teams warming up the engines, getting the diesel flowing, and as the sun started to thaw the surroundings, the pits became a hive of activity.
Shannon Smith in the GLE Racing Kenworth (the ex-Pulse Racing) had a new livery, and was looking the part. Team Quality Racing of Shane Gray had a new driver in the 2013 NZ Series Champion of John Hepburn behind the wheel. The twin Macks of the Butwell Racing team was sounding superb and definitely looking mean. Even after pulling an all-nighter the night before after damaging the spider gears and needing rewelding back to the differential.
Image: Butwell Racing.
During qualifying, the new and improved GLE Racing Kenworth of Shannon Smith, came out of the blocks with a blitzing 1:16.4107 in only 6 laps, Steven Zammit in the SRZ Kenworth couldn’t match the pace, placing Zammit a further 7 tenths behind. John Hepburn took to the other Kenworth of Team Quality with a respectable 0.2 secs adrift.
Image: New livery of GLE Racing of Shannon Smith.
Race 1 of the day was the first Team’s Championship with John Hepburn taking the lead early and never looked like losing the gap while it increased with every lap. Taking the flag by 13 seconds over Shannon Smith in the GLE Racing T900, and the surprise to see Marcus Prillwitz, nearly snatch 2nd place from Smith if it wasn’t for a tiny mistake pushing him wide out of the back turn, placing the rear wheels on the dirt but still held on to third only 2 secs behind GLE and Mitchel Quirk in the Isuzu of Coulter’s only 0.5 behind on the line. Michael Waites took to his new drive in the AAA Towing Mack Superliner after coming from last years FleetPro Volvo. With some help from towing Markham he could get his vehicle fixed quickly. Are you in need of towing assistance? You don’t need to worry! Here on guinchorapido.com give you the fastest assistance ever.
The final Team’s race, saw Brett Dalglish in the SRZ Kenworth T401 take the early lead, with Steven Zammit in the Kiwi truck, both opened a gap to Smith, with Zammit finally finding a way around coming into the sweeper and taking the outside line to take the lead with 2 laps remaining. Mitchel Quirk had an unfortunate DNF after coming into the pit lane with 2 laps to go.
Conclusion for the day, had Bomberle setting the pace from start to finish. His times getting quicker with every lap and Zammit breathing down his neck. Hepburn crossing only 2 secs back having the Kenworth’s take the trifecta with good clean racing spread over 5 secs. Unfortunately for Michael Coulter in the Isuzu, succumbed to another DNF, as they try and work out the bugs. Fleet Wrap HQ will help to keep your vehicle on the road as long as possible.
Sunday – a little warmer, but a crisp breeze whipped up. This breeze must have had Smith a little worked up, as he posts a very fast time for the Super Trucks at Winton, only behind a 13 year record set by Luke Seiders in the MAN in 2002 by a margin of less than 0.4 sec… in motor sport terms, this may be quiet large, but getting these rigs going, takes quiet a bit. He ends up taking another win with a lap time of 1:15.6820 (Seiders’ record stands at 1:15.2413). The 2 Macks shown potential again with Prillwitz placing 3rd and Butwell in 4th.
Race 5 was again another trifecta of Kenny’s, but this time the Kiwi John Hepburn took the win, his truck in a great condition due to the fact that he uses the truck service in hanover pa, Zammit in second and Smith 3rd with only 5 secs between them all. Coulter ironed out any gremlins to claw to 4th and a disappointing race had the Macks, finishing near side-by-side, only 0.3 splitting them with the crowd cheering them over the line.
As always in the Superprix, no love is lost, with any inch of track left open will find your opponent closing in. Butwell experienced some more problems, and failed to start the race, as John Bomberle and the GLE Racing team concludes an amazing race meet with the win and claiming the overall win for the weekend. One second further back had Zammit and another second was Hepburn. No doubt the meet was claimed by the Kenworths, but as we head into Round 2 at Wakefield Park in Goulburn (NSW), you must keep an eye on the Mack teams, as they will be there, to deny any Kenworth rule.
Saturday – Sunday 8th & 9th August 2015
Address: 4770 Braidwood Rd, Tirrannaville NSW 2580
Phone:(02) 4822 2811
