Second Masterton racing truck

THE last time Ashley Hey, of Masterton, drove in competition he was doing skids in a little Corolla at a Wairarapa Car Club gravel event.
The next time he drives in competition it will be behind the wheel of 100mph, 1000hp racing truck.
It's a huge transition for the Masterton mechanic.
Yet in some ways going truck racing is not such a big step. Ashley's dad Kevin has been manager of the Boss truck racing team for 12 years, right back to when truck ace Malcolm Little first started raising eyebrows in the heavyweight brigade.
When Ashley Hey was just 8 he used to go along with his dad to the races, and that's when the diesel got into his blood. When he got old enough to be a real help he joined the team himself, becoming part of the dedicated group who have seen Little advance to the point where he's a serious contender for the New Zealand title.
In truck racing, everything is on an oversized scale, unfortunately including costs. A middle-of-the-field Bedford was recently advertised for around $58,000. So when this International-badged purpose-built race truck was advertised for less then half of that it seemed too good to be true.
Little spotted the advert and drew Ashley's attention to it. You'd never get another 1000hp truck for the money, he reckoned. The parts alone were worth more, the five-speed Allison transmission would cost $8000 to $10,000 to replace and the rear alloy rims check out at $600 apiece.
The engine's a V6 92 Detroit two-stroke diesel. It's never been on a dyno, but it's good for 900 to 1000hp. (The championship-winning Andrew Porter truck runs a V8 Detroit from which they say they are getting around 1500hp).
The timing was perfect.
"I've been crewing for Malcolm for five years and I'd got sick of watching other people out there having fun. I thought 'bugger it, I'll have a go myself'," Ashley said. Plenty of time for mortgages and other commitments later: Now's the time to have some fun.
The tumble in diesel prices is also good news for the young racer.
Hey is believed to be the youngest-ever New Zealand truck-racing debutante (Malcolm Little was 25 when he started) and he heads the youngest team in the game, 18-year-olds Shaun Loader and Rowan Thornton signing on as service crew. Engine-builder "PK" from American Diesel Spares is also expected to come on board.
The truck will be part of the Boss Truck Racing team and the combined service crews will pool their efforts to work on whichever truck needs attention. Both crews will benefit, Hey benefitting from the knowledge of one of the most experienced and successful truck racers around and Little getting the tactical advantage of a two-truck team.
"I'm one of the luckiest guys to debut in truck racing," Hey says. "It's not just the money, it's the experience that I can tap into."
There are other advantages for Hey. The current Detroit engines are near the end of their development, while Little's latest-model Cummins is just starting out. If Hey's Detroit fails, there's one of Little's older Cummins engines which can slot right in.
That would move Hey from B grade (under 12 litres) to A grade (over 12 litres). More importantly, it would give Hey an engine with which he is completely familiar ?V "I know it inside out", he said.
"Any of the team can rebuild it ?V there's nothing too tricky about it."
Hey bought the truck, a B class winner when it was last raced, from Terry Lowe, but the driver for this year was going to be Cedric Abernethy, a top driver who opted to retire after a couple of horror crashes last season.
Hey now has to round up some sponsorship money ?V there's a vast billboard of black bonnet and cab just waiting to be written on ?V and come to terms with what looks like a very lively beast.
"It should go OK, provided somebody can drive it," he said. Although it's a previous class winner the rest of the field has made big advances in the past couple of years.
He won't know how competitive it will be until he gets to his first race meeting, at a venue and date still to be confirmed, in November.
He hopes to be able to circulate midfield.
The other two rounds are Timaru on January 27-28 and Manfeild on March 31 -April 1.
The Australian V8s displace the trucks from Pukekohe this year, but with their departure next season, hopefully the trucks will return to the Queen City.
?? The Boss team will be burning the midnight oil from this weekend when Malcolm Little's new state-of-the-art engine arrives. It failed last season and has undergone a complete rebuild over the winter.
Getting it back into the Freightliner and setting the truck up will be the immediate priority.