Counties shakedown for the Big Dog
The truck class is on the rise
Off-road racing’s truck class has been rocked by a truck-quake: immediately prior to the Government plunging New Zealand into ‘red’ on its Covid Traffic Light system, Silverdale civil contractor Joel Giddy brought his Pro4 Ford out for a season-opener at Manukau.
Dubbed the Big Dog, Giddy’s truck represents a new level of performance and investment for NZ off-road racing’s unlimited truck class. It has been ‘reset’ for local racing by Carl Ruiterman at E&H in Pukekohe.
The new Ford-bodied racer is built to the American Pro4 regulations, which were created to bring the excitement of the big Trophy Truck desert racers into the shorter course formats of the Lucas Oils Off-road Racing Series (LOORS).
It was run by Todd LeDuc and had only run in the US for a couple of seasons. The end of the LOORS series in 2020 put a flood of very advanced trucks onto the global market, a boon for countries like New Zealand where short course racing is gaining in popularity.
Pro4 race trucks use fibreglass bodies designed specifically for racing, draped over a single-design steel tube ‘spaceframe’. The truck’s suspension has 460mm (18”) front and 510mm (20”) rear travel.
The body panels are styled after fullsized pickups made by Chevrolet, Ford, Ram and others and are designed for quick replacement. All Pro4s are fourwheel drive – hence the name of the category. In New Zealand they run in the unlimited ‘Thundertruck’ class. There are three or more Pro4 trucks in New Zealand but Giddy’s is the newest and fastest of them.
At the heart of the new truck is a
650kW high compression Ford ‘small block’ engine built by Pro Power, a specialist competition engine builder that specialises in engines for speedway and off-road racing. Its Facebook page currently lists a ‘built’ Chev 496ci V8 with race carburettor for USD$27,000 and a
Ford 436 ci complete V8 for $35,000.
The engine in Giddy’s new machine drives through a Fortin four speed race transmission that can run as a pre-selector auto-shift or in full manual if preferred.
The Pro4 category features a range of mechanicals also used in the mightiest of the Baja 1000 desert trucks, the big Trophy Trucks.
California professional off road racer Todd LeDuc has raced in this country. He came here in 2015 to contest New Zealand’s longest and toughest race, the Polaris NZ 1000. He drove one of three race cars entered in the event by Kiwi racer and Lotto millionaire Trevor Cooper.
Teen racers head the points table after the opening round of the Concrete Treatments Counties Classic.
The club-based series has run since before the front two racers were born: Boston Morgan-Horan, son of rally driver Raana Horan, won the UTV
‘Ultra 4’ class and leads outright, while 15-year-old Holly Russell is second in the ‘Lite buggy’ class five car she has taken over from brother Keegan.
Always well patronised, the series started 2022 in fine form with a total entry of 34 cars across all classes.
There were nine UTV (‘side by side’) entries across the two classes.
The truck and 4WD classes were a highlight: eight top trucks, most of them 4WD, entered the event with the various classes running together on the track.
A flat battery lost Giddy both time and points, while Leigh Bishop took his yellow RWD V8 to the class maximum points of 64.
The day was mostly a shakedown of the new truck for the Giddy team but even so they took multiple wins and ended the day second in class behind Bishop, netting 54 points. The pair had engaged in a series of spectacular duels during the heats and all-in races, but once the Giddy Pro4 got clear he was unchallenged.
Bishop’s smaller truck has undergone a comprehensive development programme since he first acquired it and is now a credible contender for outright victory in the series.
Multiple national champion Nick
Hall started strongly in his Toyota Chev Prolite but struck problems.