#bradgallard

One Week Till Waikerie

Top speed and superior spectating on offer as the AORC lands on Toyo turf.

The Toyo Tires Riverland Enduro is Team Toyo’s home race, South Australia being home base for Toyo’s off-road racing program. The track is designed with spectators in mind it is one of the fastest and most varied courses on the AORC calendar, drawing racers from around the country.

The race conditions at the Waikerie track are a proving ground for cars and drivers, with sustained high speeds and changing terrain placing tremendous pressure on drive trains.

The tracks limestone surfaces are also extremely hard on tyres. Toyo’s Open Country M/T-R, has proven itself near unbreakable on scores of laps at race speed around the track.

Brad Gallard, following mechanical drama with the Peter Kittle Motorsport #454 Jimco trophy truck at Finke will be working hard in front of a home crowd, hoping to improve on last year’s third outright.

The race is a highlight for Brad.

“My favourite thing about the Riverland Enduro is the country atmosphere. It’s still a race, so relaxed is the wrong word, but the event is comfortable for me, it’s great to be there. It’s a very good feeling to be racing just an hour from home,” says Brad.

With a long history of racing in the Riverland, Brad’s local hero status isn’t all champagne and podium finishes.

“The worst part of the Riverland Enduro is not finishing. I have more DNF’s than I do finishes from 13 starts at Waikerie. It’s a track the gets the better of me. It’s my home race, the locals really get behind you and its game on, and you can push a bit hard. Bit of the red mist,” he says.

Matt Kittle in the 3500cc twin turbo PKMS Jimco will be duelling the likes of Shannon Rentsch and Jack Rhodes in the Pro-Buggy class. “The best part of the event is speed of the track,” says Matt. “Getting to take the car up to its top speed at 220km/h or more is always a good rush.”

“There is plenty of action for spectators, and the road jump that spectators can stop at on the way in to the main Toyo area is massive”

The side by side start (also a plus for spectators) is a bit of a challenge, pushing drivers hard off the line. Drivers are incentivised to launch hard, or suffer some spray.

“If you don’t get a good start then you get showered in rock!” says Matt.

Toyo man Greg Gartner has also been getting in plenty of practice since Finke, running third outright at his own event at Moorex earlier this month. The #410 F150 is ready for a hard charge, following a great performance in 2014 that he will build on this year.

Hayden Bentley, after a second place in the X2WD class at Finke, wants to take his new Racer Engineering trophy truck to the next level.

“I have only done the event once in the last 10 years, but I like that it has a bit of everything. Fast stuff, mallee scrub, limestone, everything.”

With the home ground advantage, Team Toyo are primed once more for a great weekend of racing.

Stay tuned to the Toyo blog and Toyo Tyres Australia Facebook page for regular updates.

Check out the spectator guide here.

Clipsal 500 Adelaide organisers have announced the full driver line-up for the Australian debut of the world’s newest and most exciting form of racing, the Toyo Tires Robby Gordon Stadium Super Trucks Series.

Stadium Super Trucks founder and two-time series champion Robby Gordon will be the star attraction in the pits at Victoria Park for next week’s Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

Gordon’s signature orange truck will be met by nine other high profile drivers to race side by side in 10 snarling 600 horsepower trucks.

The international contingent will be met by five Australians drivers: Brad Gallard, Toby Price, Billy Geddes, Nathan Pretty and Matt Mingay. The Aussie team is ready to impress in their first outing behind the wheel of a Stadium Super Truck.

Team Toyo off-road legend and 2012 Finke Desert Race winner Gallard will lead the Aussie charge in his first race of 2015.

“I’m looking forward to getting out on the bitumen and launching from the ramps, mixing it up and having fun,” said Gallard.

“This is going to open a lot of people’s eyes up to the sport. It will have people on the edge of their seat. This is a series we have always wanted to showcase but to be able bring it to an event like the Clipsal 500 is beyond exciting.

“There is no doubt that people are going to love it.”

Coming off a high from a third place outright at Dakar, off-road motorcycle racer Price (the second Australian ever to take a podium at the gruelling rally) will make a big switch to four wheels and a sealed circuit. Price will share the drive with Finke Ironman and off-road virtuoso Geddes.

The desert racers are joined by former V8 Supercars driver and 24-hour Bathurst winner Pretty and prolific Australian stunt rider and driver Mingay.

In addition to Gordon, four international veterans of Stadium Super Truck racing will join the locals on the grid: Sheldon Creed, Charles Dorrance, EJ Viso and Keegan Kincaid.

17-year-old Creed, 2014 Stadium Super Trucks second place-getter wunderkind, is poised to beat Robby Gordon at his own game.

Creed is joined by Trophy Truck master Dorrance, and Venezuelan Viso, who claimed three wins from 10 starts in the 2014 season. Kincaid also claimed a series race win in 2014.

The Stadium Super Trucks will drive the full V8 Supercars track, with specially designed jumps added to the iconic Adelaide street circuit.

The field will take to the course for two 20 minute sessions on Thursday followed by an eight lap race on each of the following days.

“Stadium Super Trucks has become hugely popular at motor racing events in the United States and we’re very excited to be hosting the first ever Stadium Super Trucks event outside of North America,” said Clipsal 500 CEO Mark Warren.

Toyo Tires has acquired the naming rights sponsorship of the Australian debut of Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Trucks presented by TRAXXAS at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide. Supporting sponsors of the series include Clipsal by Schneider, Traxxas, Hogg’s Breath Café, Jet Pilot and GoPro.

Peter Kittle Motorsport, Brad Gallard and Team #454 have revealed the previously unseen livery of the trophy truck set to dominate Australian off-road racing.

Previously seen only in white, the last few months have been an anxious wait to see the aggressive lines of the PKMS trophy truck draped in its racing colours.

The game changing truck is powered by no less than a NASCAR-spec Toyota Racing Development PH9 V8. The mighty TRD mill will send its freedom loads of stars-and-stripes style horsepower to the ground via an Albins ST6 high-speed sequential gearbox. Fortunately, the truck is anchored by Alcon rotors and calipers capable of quickly bringing the big girl down from flighty speeds of 200km/h plus.

The truck's lightweight rims will be shod exclusively with Toyo’s Open Country M/T-R, a race version of Toyo's off-the-shelf 4x4 mud terrain tyres.

The truck will add an entirely new dimension to the PKMS racing program and draw the Brad Gallard #454 fan base to the PKMS team.

PKMS Team Manager Rob Richardson has great expectations for the new truck.

"With a lot of tight races on the calendar turbo buggies will always have an advantage, so while I would love to, I won't say we are going for an all-out championship. That said we are absolutely aiming for a trophy truck class win in 2015." He said.

With the livery applied, the truck is one step closer to turning tyres in anger, something that Brad Gallard has been waiting for since the announcement was made earlier this year.

"The truck is very strong, and I'm excited to get in it and drive. We will have a couple of shakedown runs this year to make sure I'm up to speed," he said.