MOVING THE MERCH
It’s a truck that belongs at a race track, but there isn’t a full-size race car to be found inside this Tickford Racing B-Double.
Its driver, Angas Dandie, joined the Supercars circuit back in 2011. His first role was shifting the official merchandise for Supercars. Having honed that craft for five years, Angas received an offer from Tickford Racing (known then as Prodrive Racing Australia) to manage the Melbourne-based team’s merchandise program.
Soon after joining, he was fortunate enough to experience the latter stages of Mark Winterbottom’s championship win in 2015.
We caught up with Angas to learn more about life on the road and at the race track.
Thanks for chatting to Tracks at Tracks, Angas! What are you up to before, during and after a race weekend?
Angas Dandie: “Basically, anything related to Tickford Racing merchandise at the event is me. I book the sites, I drive the truck to the event, set up the stand, which is a day and a half worth of work, sell the products, pack it up and drive it back to Melbourne. Well, usually it’s back to Melbourne, but for this top end trip, we did Darwin to Townsville direct and stopped in at Ipswich on the way back.”
It sounds like there is a fair bit to this role and transport is just one part of it. Do you like being out on the open road?
AD: “I do. It’s arguably the best part of the job. It is great going to (and sometimes leaving!) the event.”
The B-Double must be able to hold a fair bit of merchandise. What’s located where?
AD: “So, a bit like the race team, we carry everything we need. The B-trailer is mainly stock, but it also carries my sales counters and has an office in the front. The A-trailer is equipment. We have a big truss frame that we set up with all of our signage. It also houses the slat wall panels that hang on the side of the truck, café barriers for display purposes and some roll cases with other equipment.
She’s pretty full. Of course, it doesn’t weigh a lot. It’s only at about 42-tonnes loaded, but we don’t have a lot of space to spare.”
Is it always the B-Double configuration?
AD: “Usually. We only take one trailer to Tasmania. It’s all jammed in because the cost of taking this stuff on the ferry is hideous. We also just take the single to the Gold Coast because there is simply no space. Even the race transporters don’t park behind the garage because there is no room at all. It’s the same with merchandise.”
How many kilometres do the merchandise trucks travel each year? Is it a similar number to the race car transporters?
AD: “It’s close enough to the same. We fall into the 40,000-50,000 kilometre per year range. That is bugger all for a truck.”
Do you always go back to base in Melbourne after each round or do you often take the most direct route to the next circuit?
AD: “For the most part, the truck will go back to Melbourne. The most recent trip up north is the only one where we shortcut it. After Darwin, the boys went home to prep the cars and I went to Townsville and flew back to Adelaide where I live. You would often go back to Melbourne after Townsville, but for this one, I had a place to park it not far from Ipswich.”
The photos approaching Barkly Homestead are pretty iconic in our world. How did the first one come about and when did you decide to replicate it this year?
AD: “For the first one, there were actually three of us. We all took off and at that particular spot, there is literally nothing on the landscape. There are no trees. Nothing. That means you can get a pretty clear view to the horizon which is really rare. We just happened to be there when the sun came up. On top of that, there’s a place on the side of the road to pull over as well.
This time, I could see that the sun was coming up and it just so happened that I was wondering where that spot was. I turned this corner and realized that it was the same spot! That was a fluke. I knew that we were roughly around there, but not at the same spot at the same time. I definitely didn’t plan it as such.
I quickly pulled over, jumped out and took some photos. If I had thought about it more, I would have got more of the exact same angle.”
Do you find that a lot of people want to get a photo with the truck?
AD: “A little bit, but particularly on these outback trips when you’re pulling into roadhouses and stuff. That’s more where it happens. Up and down the east coast where it’s busier, people don’t seem to care as much or they might have seen it before. People out in the country seem to have a bit more time. There are plenty of grey nomads in the roadhouses when you pull in. They tend to wander over and take some photos.
One of our favourite spots is Daly Waters on the way to Darwin. It’s about six or seven hours out of Darwin and there is a pub literally in the middle of nowhere. It has a pretty decent sized caravan park and at night, it’s still 25 degrees. We roll in there with about half a dozen of these B-Doubles and that’s pretty entertaining.”
Do you have a favourite trip on the Supercars calendar?
AD: “It’s definitely Darwin. That would be followed by Perth. The two long trips are quite entertaining, but there’s something about Darwin. When you leave Adelaide or Melbourne in June and head up to Darwin, it’s very nice. I would also say that the Nullarbor is really interesting. There’s nothing really there, but there’s also something great about it.”
Thank you to Angas Dandie and Tickford Racing for helping to put this article together. You can find the Campbellfield-based outfit on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. The team merchandise is available in the Tickford Store and at the track.
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