Freightliner’s new flagship model in Australia is powering Triple Eight’s 2021 Dunlop Super2 Series campaign

Triple Eight Race Engineering struck a new partnership with Daimler Truck and Bus Australia during the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship off-season, with a Mercedes-Benz Actros prime mover emerging from the darkness at Ampol’s Lytton refinery in the team’s 2021 launch video.

Since then, Triple Eight has been thrown the keys to no less than three new prime movers under the Daimler Trucks banner during the first half of this year. These trucks are integral to its racing programs in the Repco Supercars Championship, Dunlop Super2 Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia.

The big new ‘Benz for its Supercars B-Double transporter stole the headlines back in April this year, but a new bonneted truck has since entered the Triple Eight Race Engineering fleet. And it’s a high-profile model that Daimler, and its Freightliner brand, are aiming squarely at the competitive heavy-duty truck market Down Under. 

From Banyo to Bathurst

The Freightliner Cascadia was officially launched in the Australian market in November 2019. There was plenty said about its safety, fuel efficiency and driver comfort, as well as the engineering efforts to prepare the truck for our bruising Australian conditions.

And as Daimler scaled up promotion of its best-selling North American model last year, it was inevitable that we’d see one in an Australian pit lane.

This year’s Repco Mount Panorama 500 saw the first Freightliner Cascadia appear in a circuit racing paddock Down Under. That truck, painted in grey, towed the Triple Eight Race Engineering Dunlop Super2 Series Commodores of Broc Feeney and Angelo Mouzouris on a 1000-kilometre trip to Mount Panorama Circuit. A fitting distance, right?

But that’s not the truck that’s in the Triple Eight stable today. The Cascadia seen at the Mount Panorama 500 was on loan from Daimler while the team awaited delivery of its brand-new prime mover.

All dressed up with nowhere to go

Triple Eight’s new Freightliner Cascadia 116, finished in white with a 36-inch sleeper, arrived at the team’s factory before the second scheduled round of the 2021 Dunlop Super2 Series season at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria.

Regular Triple Eight Dunlop Super2 Series truck driver, Warick ‘Waz’ Beames, drove the Cascadia on its maiden trip to a race weekend in late May, before turning around and leaving Winton Motor Raceway as Victoria entered another lockdown a day before the meeting was scheduled to begin.

Waz headed back up the M1 to Banyo and parked the truck for another month, before firing up the Detroit DD13 engine for a 1300-kilometre trip north to the Townsville double header at Reid Park in July.

Those are the only race meetings the Cascadia has attended during the disrupted 2021 Dunlop Super2 Series season so far, with the truck’s odometer showing only 8000 kilometres in half a year.                                                  

First impressions

We threw a couple of questions at Waz, who drives both the Triple Eight Dunlop Super2 Series Cascadia and the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Mercedes-Benz Actros, to get his initial impressions of the new flagship Freightliner.

“My first impression was ‘wow, it’s got a bonnet!’” laughed Waz. “I’ve been at Triple Eight for 13 years, and everything I’ve ever had is cab-overs. It’s certainly been a while since I’ve had a bonnet – and I’m a big fan of the bonneted look of the Cascadia.

“Having said that, with the slant of the bonnet, I’ve noticed that you can’t really see it when you’re driving. But you certainly know it’s there when you’re looking at it.”

With 505 horsepower and 1850 torque pounds under his right foot, we asked Waz how the truck handles on the road.

“It holds straight, runs very smooth and I’m getting a feel for all the functions now,” he said. “Something that impressed me with the Cascadia is when you hit cruise control, it just floats along with the traffic. Even when you’re coming to a set of traffic lights and the car in front of you slows down, you don’t even need to touch the brake. It’s certainly been a comfortable driving experience during the limited trips I’ve done so far. There’s a fair bit of technology, and a very comfortable seat, to thank for that.

“I’m looking forward to trying out a few more features when we leave for a couple of trips toward the back end of this year to Sydney and Bathurst. When I rolled back into the workshop after Townsville, I felt like there was plenty more to discover yet.”

Double duties in Daimler trucks

While he handed the keys to Dave Lewin for Triple Eight’s main game transport duties in 2019, Waz has still been racking up plenty of kilometres behind the wheel to support the team’s other racing activities.

“When I joined the Super2 team a couple of years ago, it made sense because I have a young fella at home. Now, with the GTs running as well, I’ve actually been doing more trips than the main series do! Kilometres-wise it probably wouldn’t have been as much driving, because they were going to Perth and Darwin, but the time away from home would’ve been roughly the same.

“We’re always busy. That’s the nature of motorsport. But it’s great to be giving our young guys an opportunity to make their name at Triple Eight.”

Waz will fire up the Cascadia again next month, with the Dunlop Super2 Series penciled in for the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperSprint on November 19-21, before the season finale at Bathurst from November 30 – December 5.