FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED FROM RIDING WITH IRWIN RACING
The dust has settled since our trip to the Supercars season opener in Adelaide.
Last week, Colin Schwartz and IRWIN Racing very kindly gave us the opportunity to ride in the team’s Kenworth T610 prime mover across the border to the Superloop Adelaide 500.
It was a totally new experience for us and one that has sparked a much deeper appreciation for the logistics that keep top-level touring cars in motion.
With the Supercars five-litre V8s departing the City of Churches until 2020, it’s about time we put our thoughts together about what we learned along the way.
Sacrifices are inevitable in this job
Before any heat flooded the Kenworth T610’s engine bay on Monday morning, the sacrifices that truck drivers make became immediately clear. We arrived just as Colin and his young family finished their breakfast together ahead of his seven-day stint away from home.
A couple of tight hugs and sharp turns later, we rolled out with Mark Winterbottom’s IRWIN Tools Holden ZB Commodore strapped inside the B-Trailer for the 700-kilometre trip. Even as you read this, Colin will only just have arrived back home.
There’s a heck of a lot to do
The Supercars truck drivers don’t just steer the truck to the race track and put their feet up for the week. There is so much more that goes on behind the scenes that we scarcely ever see. From organising truck washes and corporate events to rolling into the track at exactly the right time, so much goes on before the precious cargo is unloaded.
Once the race weekend starts, there are completely different demands. Colin and most of the other truck drivers are in charge of everything about the Dunlop race tyres. That means a lot of engineering to get the four patches of rubber that touch the road reaching the optimum temperature at the right moment. The mind boggles when Colin explains how they manage that.
The transporters are good for more than just carrying the race car
Watching jaws drop and passenger cars behave strangely in the presence of our IRWIN Racing B-Double transporter, it’s immediately clear just how impactful our setup is on the road. You can just about bet the house on a double-take when a pedestrian glances up from their phone and catches a glimpse of a 50-tonne billboard with a state-of-the-art prime mover boogying up front.
“I enjoy being able to share this with people,” explained Colin when we quizzed him about the attention his truck receives. “Quite often through the IRWIN Racing Transporter page, people will send you photos of the trip. The excitement that people get from seeing these things going down the road is phenomenal.”
After arriving in Adelaide, the next task was to get the whole thing sparkling again. All the Supercars transporters went through a thorough wash to make sure they were spotless before parking up at the track where thousands would get stand in awe of them. Each of the drivers understand just how important it is to keep the transporter looking clean so sponsors such as IRWIN Tools extract all the value they can from the marketing spend.
It’s not all glitz and glamour
It all looks like a blast from the outside, but being a Supercars truck driver and tyre engineer isn’t a walk in the park. To give you an idea, consecutive late nights over the weekend preceded Colin’s departure early on Monday morning. We’ll let him explain the rest.
“There are a lot of perceptions out there that all we do is drive to the track and enjoy the race weekend, but it’s not actually like that at all. There’s a lot of work you do as a driver such as maintenance and keeping the transporter clean, as presentation is absolutely paramount.”
“We also work really hard in our roles at the track and at the workshop. There can be a lot of hours spent getting these things right, well beyond what you might expect. It’s like most jobs, as you have times when everything is going well and times when things are tough and you wonder why you do it. You have to have a lot of passion for the industry and a lot of love for what you do.”
We should also note that our first evening in Adelaide was rounded out by dinner at an otherwise empty hotel restaurant that night. Even as tens of thousands of people prepared to pack into Adelaide Parklands that weekend, there’s a lot of weary eyes and solitude in this job before and after the bright lights and loud motors.
The camaraderie between Supercars truck drivers is topnotch
We were fortunate enough to spend a fair bit of time around the Supercars truck drivers at BP Wingfield as they waited to park up at the track on a scorching Tuesday morning. Though competitiveness kicks in when the race weekend begins, there is a deep respect for one another as humorous accounts of the trip are shared over breakfast and a coffee.
Each driver has their own story of the trip west and their team’s preparation heading into the opening round of the year. As we departed for the airport later that day, most of the truck drivers were preparing to catch up as a group on everything missed over the summer. There are a lot of characters, too, and we hope to show you more of them over the coming months.
We must say another big thank you to Colin Schwartz and IRWIN Racing for the opportunity to look so much closer into the world of motorsport logistics. We wish the Mount Waverley outfit the very best of luck for this year. You can follow their 2019 campaign on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and track Colin’s diesel-fueled journey around Australia on Facebook and Instagram.