TRUCK racer Malcolm Little's bridesmaid years may be coming to an end. The Masterton-based businessman did his first meeting with a new engine in his Freightliner race truck at Timaru last weekend and returned home delighted with his progress.
With help from sponsor West Bush Deer Stud, Little has installed a
state-of-the-art 1700hp Cummins engine in the truck to replace the 1070hp power plant that has served him well up to now. Torque, important in a sport where the racers are governed to 160km/h, is up from 2600 to 4000lb.
Little qualified second fastest behind his nemesis, national champion Andrew Porter, of Hamilton, on Saturday, then won all three races on Sunday when Porter had a series of mechanical problems.
Porter's problems took some of the shine off Little's efforts, but the Masterton man saw enough to encourage him.
"From the start we blew him away by six truck-lengths. When he did get past we easily overtook him on the straights. The power and acceleration are just phenomenal," said Little.
And this despite the fact that the new engine had problems of its own.
"It played up all weekend," said Little. "We had bent pushrods, all sorts of things. We spent the whole weekend working on it, and I think we only had five cylinders for most of the meeting."
Little qualified a full three seconds faster than he'd ever gone before at the track, despite driving cautiously. "There's no doubt we've got the truck with the most horsepower," he said later. And the brakes upgrade done by the team also worked well.
Little was disappointed with Porter's mechanical problems.
"I don't want to beat him by him breaking down," he said. "He had some bad luck.
"He's the benchmark and he will be until we beat him in an even contest."
Hopefully, that will happen at the final round of the season in Auckland.
In the meantime, it's "head down and arse up" to get the new engine running right and reliable.
Last year, he said, the Timaru meeting had been his best ever.
"Now we can say that again."
The crew had worked really well ? "they all know their stuff" ? and the truck had suffered no damage.
