For us, it is one of the highlights of the year, to race on the famous Le Mans circuit, especially as its an “all truck” weekend with huge crowds. This weekend also hosts rounds of the French national Truck Racing Series, along with the FIA European Truck Racing Championship.
The weekend is a little different with us “adopting” the FIA format. In place of our usual “qualifying with 2 races on the Saturday” and “3 races on the Sunday” format we adopt a “qualifying and 2 races” on each day sequence. This is why there are only 4 races over the weekend and not the usual 5. However, we also get a “warm-up” each day too – so the trucks are out on the track four times a day – making it hard work for the team. There are, of course, practise sessions on the Friday too!
So, each day starts with a warm-up, followed by qualifying. The grid for race 1 is based on qualifying times. The grid for race two is based on the finishing places from race one, with the top 8 reversed. “Rinse and repeat” on the Sunday.
We left our workshop in Kent bright and early at 4 am on the Wednesday morning and headed for the Dover to Calais crossing via the English and French customs. We arrived at the holding area at Le Mans around 5 pm that afternoon and set up “temporary” accommodation with all the other teams in a car park. At 9 am on the Thursday we were allowed into the paddock to start set-up prior to testing on the Friday.
Testing went to plan but the rebuilt Frankie was still distinctly unhappy in the drive train area. No amount of tinkering, spanner twirling or technical adjustments, either minor (with a small hammer) or major (with a bigger hammer) found a resolution. Something was out of balance somewhere and it wasn’t going to be cheap. More to the point, it could get rapidly more expensive. So, Frankie was parked up for the weekend, in reality to protect the gear box.
Back at base, in the weeks following the event, the source of the troubles was finally diagnosed. The rear axle was removed, the differential extracted, and the empty axle casing thoroughly inspected. It was bent, putting pressure on the differential, half shafts and wheel bearings, along with the “upstream” drive line. A full replacement rear axle was needed….
Archie, in aging Ovlov, had a few good races and certainly entertained the fans with his sideways style and drifting. The “admin” slipped up a little, as at one point it was thought that he wouldn’t be able to race. The course officials had not been informed that there were two classes. To compete, your lap times must be within 110% of the leader lap time. Clearly Ovlov, could not be within 110% of “Flyin’ Ryan”, when the poor old truck can’t even get to 100mph anywhere on the track! That was resolved with only moments to spare – I’ve never seen Archie run so fast before !
So, another weekend that started with so much promise, ended up with failure – but that’s racing, if winning was easy, it would be called “winning” and not racing!
Check out our “Gallery” page for more pictures from the event!
Thanks to J H Haulage, Weavers and Povey Transport who are helping us get around – so thank you, without you we would be stuck at home in Detling!
THANK YOU to ALL our wonderful sponsors, especially LPM; to the businesses who help us out in kind, or with cash (although we accept cheques too of course!), we could NOT do this without you ALL. No matter how big or small your help – this team of family and friends could not do this without YOU. YOU made it possible for Simon, and Archie, putting father and son on the track. THANK YOU. (but we always need more help of course).
Please check out our “Partners” page to find out more about our sponsors.
See us all, cheer on Archie and Simon and “THINK PINK” at the Circuits if you can – we are always happy to chat and show you our race trucks. Unless we are repairing them of course, in which case best to give us some space to work safely.
If you cannot visit the track, then remember to check out the “BARC” live feed on YouTube – or of course on “catch up” later.
CTS#41 and CTS#40; Simon, Archie, John, Colin, Sam, Toby, Martin, Guy, Dave and Zeki.
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