John Hepburn restored some pride to a horror weekend on his home circuit, winning the third race and the flying farewell at the New Zealand Super Trucks, at Levels, yesterday.
The defending series champion found himself with an “undriveable” truck at the Timaru International Motor Raceway circuit on Saturday and although the big rig improved yesterday, Hepburn said it was likely he would sit out the third round of the championship.
“We showed we can be competitive to a point with the things we changed but we’ve got a long way to go,” Hepburn said.
“The fact that I was able to keep distance between me and the faster guys in race three was important.
“It wasn’t until I backed off in those final couple of laps that they were able to eat into my lead.”
Hepburn believed he started the weekend with a faulty turbo in his Kenworth. Fixing this would be essential for him to be competitive, he said.
As well as engine problems Hepburn’s weekend was compounded by a big off in practice and then two penalties for exceeding the 100 mile-an-hour speed limit in the second race yesterday morning.
It dropped him from an already disappointing fourth to last which ironically gave him the edge for the third race, a reverse grid affair.
“A win’s a win but I don’t like to win like that,” Hepburn said.
“We’ll take it, it was good to give the crowds on the banks something to cheer about, but unless we have the time to do some serious testing before the next round we probably won’t bother taking the truck to Teretonga.”
In Hepburn’s place at the top of the crop, it was a titanic tussle between Aucklanders Andrew Porter in a Kenworth and Troy Wheeler in a Freightliner that caught the attention for most of the weekend.
Series leader Porter ended the weekend with bragging rights and an even bigger championship lead after a collision between the two in the first race on Saturday sent Wheeler spinning and Porter into an unassailable lead.
Wheeler kept going, eventually finishing fourth, and then came back at Porter yesterday morning.
Wheeler kept a half-a-second between himself and Porter for most of the eight-lap race.
It was a tense affair, particularly after the incident in the first race, with neither driver giving an inch.
Wheeler eventually pulled away from Porter in the final lap to win by one second.
In the final race, a quality drive from Porter again put him in second, this time behind Hepburn, with Wheeler another two seconds behind.
Wheeler said he had no issues with the collision in the first race.
“I’m really rapt with how the weekend went. It’s the first meeting where I’ve actually been able to get to grips with the truck and it performed really well.
“I had a bit of a tip in the first race but, hey, that’s racing.”
Porter said the team were delighted with the weekend’s results.
Things could be tweaked before the third round but they didn’t want to mess with the reliability of the truck, he said.
Wheeler’s 17-year-old son, Tim, also put in a solid showing in his first outing, despite mechanical issues, while Upper Hutt veteran Malcolm Little remained aggressive to the final turn and was rewarded with a couple of podium finishes.
Sports saloons, pre 65s, mini 7s and pro 7s all provided entertaining and largely incident free racing for busy banks at Levels.
