Maxxis Tyres, King of Wales 2017 and a Gigglepin Racing flying racer.
This is an event Maxxis driver Allen Sharp has wanted to do for some time but until earlier this year didn’t really have the right truck for the job. The new 960 racer Delilah, and an eager Co. Driver with Ben Turpie changed everything.
The event started on Friday morning with pre running this is done at low speed so the drivers can learn the course and pick their lines through the technical rocky sections. 4pm was the prologue and the race was on. Things are going well until they came up to the prologue steps, these Maxxis drivers tried to climb the first step and discovered they had no rear diff and this cost them valuable time. Even with all this they still managed to secure 4th in their class.
Maxxis sponsored driver Jerry Hunt from Dirtyduck racing had a spare rear diff that he very kindly loaned to keep these driver in the race this weekend.
Saturday consisted of six laps of an 18 Kilometre course which was fast. Lap one was going well until these drivers came to the quarry section, the engine lost all power for about a kilometre then came back. They called in to the pits to see if there were any problems, however, they didn’t find anything and carried on with lap two.
In lap two Allen managed to break a CV in the Land Rover Jaguar steps, so him and Ben gently coax Delilah back into the pits for a much longer stop this time replacing the CV and shaft. Thy both headed back out for lap three, and what an absolute flyer, they proceeded on to lap 4 but yet another problem accrued just before the quarry section. Allen blew a hole in a radiator hose meaning they had to retire from the race to save the engine from overheating.
After a busy night of going through the truck with a fine tooth comb checking and triple checking that there wasn’t anything that could go wrong it was time to talk tactics for Sunday. The drivers were running the mighty 37inch Maxxis Trepadors.
Sunday consisted of four laps, Allen and Ben set off knowing all they had to do was complete them all to be in with a chance of being on the podium. Unfortunately halfway round their first lap the truck was getting hot and these Maxxis drivers found that they had a cracked radiator with no spare. They ended the race with a 5th in class.
Photo Credit: Depression 4×4 Photography
