STRANDED ON THE NULLARBOR PLAIN
When you have a race meeting to attend on the other side of the country, but the prime mover has other ideas
The Murray Carter Racing transporter in Caiguna
Photo: Joe Sullivan
We’re going back to 1988 for our last Classics Week story. This one is well into the Group A touring car era, and Joe Sullivan is still driving the race transporter for Melbourne-based Murray Carter Racing.
The Australian Touring Car Championship has just raced at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria the previous weekend, and Joe sets off for the trip to Wanneroo on the west coast of Australia.
“We had loaded Murray Carter’s car and two others,” recalls Joe. “Traditionally, we’d double up with some other teams for the longer trips to help offset the cost, which made it a bit more affordable to go racing.”
Trains and timetables
The first leg of the trip from Melbourne to Adelaide was smooth, and Joe drove the transporter a couple more hours north to arrive at Port Augusta.
“Murray had said to put the truck on the freight train again on that trip, which we’d done in the past,” explains Joe. “But this time, I got to Port Augusta at around 4am in the morning, and the train timetable had changed from what we were previously aware of.
“I got there on the Tuesday, and the train wasn’t running. It wasn’t going to be running again until something like the Thursday. We hadn’t really done enough research to make sure it was running when we thought it was. I rang Murray and told him the train wasn’t running, but offered to drive the truck across the Nullarbor. And he said it was fine to drive.”
The Murray Carter Racing transporter in 1988
Photo: Joe Sullivan
A serious noise
Joe got the Louisville rolling for the long trip west, covering just over half the trip from Port Augusta to Perth.
“I got over to Caiguna, which is around 1200 kilometres east of Perth,” says Joe. “I fuelled up at the service station, drove out of the driveway and about five kilometres up the road, I heard a pretty serious noise.
“I turned around and limped back into the service station, thinking I didn’t want to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere 200 kilometres from the next town. Luckily, I got back to the roadhouse and was able to set about establishing what was wrong. I found that the diff was the problem - it was a broken front diff pinion gear.”
A sorry sight at the Caiguna roadhouse
Photo: Joe Sullivan
That meant the truck wasn’t going to make it to Perth. Not even close.
“As I stood outside this service station, I realised that it was more pressing to make it to the race meeting with the three race cars we had on board,” continues Joe.
“I went in, and the Caiguna Roadhouse boss suggested his next door neighbour 200 kilometres up the road might be able to help. This guy, John Croker, was the operator of the cattle station at Balladonia.
“As it turned out, John was happy to bring his prime mover a few hundred kilometres east to help me out. He arrived with his LNT 9000 Ford Louisville, hooked up our transporter, and I travelled with him to Perth in the truck for the races. He stayed there for the weekend while we went racing.”
John Croker’s Ford Louisville saving the day
Photo: Joe Sullivan
The return trip
Murray Carter’s Nissan Skyline hit the track in Perth without a hitch, and in the downtime between races, Joe was working out how to revive the stranded Louisville back in Caiguna.
“We headed back on the Sunday night after the races in John’s truck, and he dropped off the trailer where our broken down truck was on the Monday. John and his wife Jacqui were very friendly country people – Jacqui even feeding us dinner on our return.”
Joe returned to the truck, which was parked out of harm’s way near the roadhouse building.
“Luckily, I also had Steve Nicolson come on the return trip, and with his talents as a mechanic and mine as a machinist and bush mechanic, we were able to bypass the diff and engineer a makeshift wooden cover to keep the oil in the front housing. Those woodworking classes at tech school finally paid off!
Joe’s makeshift fix on the Louisville
Photo: Joe Sullivan
“We were then able to limp it back into Adelaide without leaking oil everywhere, just driving on the rear axle set of the bogie drive. We were full of caution and took longer than we should have, driving at 80 kilometres per hour for about 1600 kilometres back to Adelaide.
“We raced at Adelaide Raceway the following weekend and we were able to get a fully rebuilt front diff centre fitted while we raced. The trip back to Melbourne had one more hiccup in store for us – a blown tyre near Stawell - but compared to our Nullarbor excitement, it was a very small issue. All in all, a rather expensive trip!”
That’s it for Classics Week! Another big thank you to Joe for sharing his incredible memories and photos from Australian motorsport transport throughout the years, and to everyone who helped us out with the stories and photos from way back when. We couldn’t do this without your generous support.
Depending on what happens with motorsport in the latter part of 2021, we’ll almost certainly do another themed week before the end of the year. It’s just a matter of what!
Please let us know what you thought of Classics Week and suggest any content you’d like to see more of while we wait for motorsport to get rolling again Down Under. You can contact us any time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or email.