A super fast lap of 2:23 set by Paul in the Friday night practice/qualifying session put us into the shoot-out for the third year in a row, which gave Rhys (aka Moose) another chance to beat Steele’s 2008 shoot-out record of 2:16. He came painfully close again, clocking a 2:18, which was good enough to give us our third consecutive poll position at Murray Bridge.
Paul got us off to an absolute flyer in the first hour of the race, averaging 2:40 and putting some solid time into Team Phantom, Trisled Fresh Racing and Blueshift. It was evident at this stage that the race was going to be tough and we would need to perform at our best to be able to win, as all of the top teams were showing great pace.
Fast and consistent riding from everyone in the team over the first 5-6 hours had us up by nearly 6 laps at the quarter way mark, which was easily the best start we’d made to any race at Murray Bridge. But the weather gods were not on our side this year, and the track conditions became progressively worse due to the light but steady rain that was falling. This meant that the inevitable would eventually occur, and we unfortunately started to lose a bit of paint.
Halfway through Nathan’s second stint we received a 2 minute penalty (more on this later) which was related to some minor problems we were having with our headlight, and it was discovered during this time that the right rear fairing support which is integral to the chassis, had broken. Luckily we had BYR’s Deven and Chooka helping us out in the pits, along with the ever reliable Mick Mctigue, who attacked the necessary repairs like men possessed.
By this stage we had lost most of the advantage we had over Team Phantom and Trisled, who were both lapping quickly and consistently. Unfortunately Blueshift, who were holding some great pace earlier in the race, suffered a monumental breakage to their fairing supports around this time, which forced them to abandon the race. I think we can all rest assured that they will be back bigger than ever next year after the first DNF in their extremely consistent racing career.
More solid riding from Daniel and Rhys put us back on track, but it was discovered after Rhys’ stint that the left rear support had also broken, which required another repair and cost us more time in the pits. A few laps later we were assured that the repairs would hold up, as Wade suffered a huge roll over at the right hander after the rear tyre blew out. Because of the rear support breakages, the rear tyre had been rubbing fairly severely on the edge of the wheel hole when taking the right hander, which eventually tore through the side wall of the tyre. This prompted us to cut more out of the wheel hole to allow for the movement that was being created by the weakened rear end of the chassis. The one positive taken from this incident was that the rear supports remained rigid and didn’t require further attention.
Relative to the middle section of our race, the last part was fairly incident-free, with the exception of a second penalty we received. We thoroughly appreciate the job that the race officials do in organising and running a smooth race with so many competitors, but we feel that being penalised for not stopping for a black flag that’s being waved in the dark and rain on the fastest section of the track is a bit unfair. We feel that the visibility of the black flag during the night is something that needs to be addressed for future races. We would also like to make it clear that none of our riders ever intentionally bump into other vehicles or try to run them off the track. Not only does this go against everything we stand for as a team, it is detrimental to our chances of success, as the likelihood of crashing is greatly increased. These occurrences are purely due to intense traffic conditions and the huge difference in speed between the faster and slower vehicles on the track, and unfortunately are sometimes completely unavoidable.
The last quarter of the race was extremely nerve wracking and exciting, as the lead went back and forth between us and Team Phantom many times, and we were hoping that mechanical failures didn’t affect the result for either team. Trisled Fresh Racing were also coming home strong, reducing the 11 lap deficit they had earlier in the race to 4 laps.
With one hour to go and with just under a lap’s lead, Wade jumped in for his final stint, planning to ride for 30 minutes then hand it over to Rhys to finish. Fortunately for us he was able to fight through the cramps that had been dogging him for most of the race, and ended up staying out for the entire hour, averaging 2:46. This secured a very tough and hard fought race and super series victory, and proved that our vehicle was just as fast at the end of the race as it was at the start, which was quite surprising!
We would like to congratulate Team Phantom and Trisled Fresh Racing for their 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Both teams pushed us until the very end and we enjoyed the tough but friendly competition.
We would like to thank everyone who helped us out throughout the year and over the weekend, particularly Mick Mctigue, and BYR’s Deven and Chooka for the work they put in to keep our vehicle running during the race. We have had a dream run this year, and much of our success has been due to the help we have received from our support crew.
After 7 years of racing, the Tru Blu Racing team has decided to take an indefinite break from HPV competition, and we are looking forward to kicking our feet up after what has been the biggest year of our career.
Cheers!
Photos courtesy of Dene Wessling, Anthony Ducat and Roger Bartlett.
