Well the 1st official NZ Super Truck race meeting for 2004 has been and gone in Timaru this weekend. So how did we go I hear you ask?

Well I think it's fair to say we didn't have one of our best race meets ever. Friday was set-up day which for the 1st time in a long time at Timaru, was actually fine. The weather although great, made Timaru a quite different track to what we've been used to for some years now as traditionally it's been seriously wet. That meant we had to set the truck up quite differently from previously, making Friday a big test day for that circuit. We also had the truck out racing for the 1st time with it's new race shocks & modified suspension. Unfortunately we also had some engine trouble & had to strip & rebuild the engine to reline the pistons that night (a long night for the crew). Confident things were finally looking good we headed into Saturday for qualifying.

With 2 sessions out on the track to try and get the best lap time possible, the pressure was on Malcolm to once again perform. At the end of the day he qualified with the 3rd fastest time behind Andrew Porter (Current NZ #1) and Bob Middleton (top Aussie Supertruck). Malcolm's time was 1 minute 21.28 versus the fastest time by Andrew of 1 minute 20.02, once again showing we're definitely on the pace and that there is very little in times between the top trucks. Later that day there was a 'Non-championship, no points' race to keep the crowd happy. With a handicap start Malcolm started 3rd from the back (9th off the start grid) but forgot it was a no points race and perhaps went a little too hard. While attempting to overtake Troy Wheeler where there was a gap, Malcolm went for bust only to find that Troy decided to close the gap. The trouble was that Malcolm had gone past the point of no return & quite simply had nowhere to go except into Troy's truck and HARD. So hard in fact that the truck (6 tonne) lifted off the ground on impact and managed to rip one of our brand new custom made (& expensive) race shocks & coil spring clean out while seriously bending the other side. Obviously a BAD impact that adversely affected both his current placing in the race & the handling of the truck. Despite this he still managed to finish in 4th place after coming from the back of the pack and in doing so, recorded the fastest race lap time of all the trucks of 1:21.02 (actually better than his qualifying time). The crash also of course meant that there was plenty of work again for the team that night & that we would be competing the race day with standard road shocks & coil springs in the front. Needless to say that was hardly the ideal way to start the official points race for the 2004 season!

Malcolm giving the crowd a smokey display	On the dummy grid waiting to go racing

Sunday Race Day:

The 1st race was a standard grid start with trucks starting in the position they qualified in. The race was stopped half way through due to carnage and when it restarted Malcolm made good progress & managed to get up to 2nd place before spinning in one of the corners and completely leaving the track. Joining the race in absolute last place at close to the end of the race is never a good thing but he still managed to claw a couple of spots back & finished in a disappointing 9th place. 1st was Porter followed by Middleton, then Cedric Abernathey.

The 2nd & 3rd races were handicap starts however were not worked out on the true time differences between the trucks. Instead the trucks were grouped into 3: The 3 fastest Supertrucks consisting of Porter, Middleton & us / the next 3 fastest consisting of Abernathey, Kelvin Bonney & Troy Wheeler / and the 3rd group being the remaining trucks. The track officials and their strange logic determined that the slowest group would start first with the 2nd group starting 55 seconds behind them and the fastest group (us) starting a further 25 seconds further back or 80 seconds behind the 1st group. Needless to say there was plenty of debate prior to the race with the main contention being the 25 seconds between the 2nd & 3rd groups when the difference between all the fastest 6 trucks was a meagre 4 seconds a lap. In fact the difference between Malcolm (3rd grp) & Cederic's (2nd grp) times was only a second and the races were only 6 laps long. Despite the debates, that's how they started.

Starting 3rd from the back (in a field of 11 trucks) Malcolm finished 5th in the 2nd race behind Porter (1st), Bonney, Abernathey and Middleton. Although Malcolm caught both Abernathey & Bonney, the gap was simply too great to be able to get past them before the end of the race (because as you may have noticed, the trucks are quite wide & some how seam to get wider when you're trying to get past them in a race).

The 3rd & final points race had a slightly better result from the same stupid handicap start and saw Malcolm finishing a very creditable 4th behind Porter (1st again), Middleton (the Aussie) & Bonney.

	Some race action from Timaru

All things considered it was a pretty disappointing meet for the BTR team with Malcolm far from happy with how things ended up. We currently sit 5th in the points table behind 2 trucks (no disrespect) that should not be in front of us but are because of the unfair handicapping that was adopted by the Timaru race officials. However considering we had engine troubles on Friday, a bad crash on Saturday, raced with secondary suspension & suffered unfair handicapping on race day, we actually did OK! We've got plenty to work on between now and Manfield in 3 weeks (30/1 - 1/2/04) but we can and are determined to claw those points back. That & the fact that the next meeting is in effect our 'home track' we are looking forward to a much better result at Manfield. The other thing that always helps is the support of sponsors and fans of which we tend to see most of at the Manfield track. So for all those able to make it, please book out the weekend and come out & support us track side!

On another matter, I said it was coming and it's finally here! The Boss Truck Racing website is up & going & can be viewed at www.btracing.co.nz so please check it out. It's not finished yet & there will be a few tweaks made on it over the next week or so, but the guts of it is there. We will be updating it on a regular basis with results, newsletters (like this), upcoming events & any else newsworthy. It also has links to other sites such as NZ Motorsports & our key sponsors. So now you don't have to wait for my e-mails, you can view things for yourselves, although I will continue to send through these simplified newsletters unless otherwise requested. So please visit & tell your fellow friends & supporters about it & us. Your feedback on both the website & the newsletters etc is welcomed & appreciated. Please simply respond back to me:

Stu Masson
stu.art@paradise.net.nz
(027) 44 555 03

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