Fresh from carving up his home turf in the big Ford F150 R&J Batteries Extreme 2wd Truck at the Teagle Excavations ARB Pines Enduro in Millcent, Greg Gartner cruises into the Gold Coast this week ready to tear up the tarmac in the #410 R&J Batteries Stadium Super Truck.
In their final long course event of the year, Greg Gartner and navigator Jamie Jennings were on the pace from the start at the Pines. Qualifying 8th outright and the quickest in the Extreme 2wd Class in the wet and slippery conditions of Teagle’s Quarry before winding up the wick during Sunday’s six laps through the South Australian pine forests.
“We started conservatively on Sunday with a couple of 41min 41 sec laps and struggled a bit with visibility with mud coming through the bonnet. But at the first service break we blocked up the holes and put on some new visors and got to work, knocking around one and half minutes off our laps times over the next two laps. Sitting in 6th with two laps to go we decided to have a real crack and dropped into the 39’s on lap 5, before loosing a cylinder with 35k’s to the finish line. After initially pulling up, we decided to push on and greeted the chequered flag in 7th outright and first in class.”
“The post-mortem revealed a broken rocker was at fault for the engine miss. I can’t thank Craig Carrision enough for building me a tough engine. It turns out that some of the parts may not quite be strong enough and that I might be a little hard on gear sometimes!” said Greg with a smile.
“Despite the rain on Saturday, the long course track through the forest was ideal and dried out nicely by the end of the race.”
By contrast Gartner will face a concrete jungle this weekend at the Gold Coast 600, rather than a pine forest, but is primed for the challenge ahead.
“I have learnt a lot in the past year driving the SST’s and I’m looking forward to returning to the Gold Coast. Every track we have raced on so far has been brand new to us and it will be great to arrive back at a track we have clocked some laps on.”
“The atmosphere at Surfers is pretty special and we can’t wait to launch the R&J Batteries truck off those jumps along beach straight. Last year it was standing room only and I’m tipping the crowds will be getting in early to grab a good spot near the jumps this time round.”
The Stadium Super Trucks hit the track twice on Friday at 11:35am and 5:05pm, followed by two sessions on Saturday at 9:40am and 12:10pm and the final two races on Sunday at 10:20am and 12:15pm, straight after the V8 Supercars Top Ten Shoot out. Stay tuned to the Greg Gartner Motorsport facebook page over the weekend for event updates.
“A big thanks to our sponsors R&J Batteries, Toyo Tyres Australia, Fuchs, ATI Industrial, Craig Carrision Race Engines, JB Irrigation, CJM Attachments, Millicent Tyre Centre, CAPPA Motorbodies and Albins for their support of our race program.”
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