Mustangs to Monza 2

[Sgt Bilco]

You may remember I di a report on taking some GT4 Mustangs to Monza a couple of year ago and the job cmew up again a couple of weeks ago.

A bit different this time as I had to take a different truck down to the and circuit and bring my usual truck back.

I had to collect the truck from Oulton Park after the British GT round on bank holiday monday and them double man it down to Monza.

For those who don't know, double manning involves using two drivers which significantly extends the time the truck is running and you can legally travel some big distances and it's used regularly in Motorsport to get the trucks where they need to be.

The company I was working for on the way down are called Hay Fisher and they supply the live TV feed on the circuit and put the races out on Youtube. I did a job for them bringing the truck back from Paul Ricard a couple of weeks previously and they are a great little outfit. They are local to me too which is handy

The trailer is an unbelievable bit of kit and is basically a mobile TV studio and is worth well into seven figures so they don't chuck the keys at anyone!!

Dumped my car at the yard in Droitwich and got taken up to Oulton getting there about 6pm. We were scheduled to leave at about 9 but as usual, things drag on and we didn't get away until about 11. As usual. they looked after me and I got fed and watered at a local hostelry.

11pm came round, trucks loaded and time to go:




Liam, the other driver on this trip, did the first stint and we headed south on a fairly empty M6. I have to say here I hate driving nights but sometimes it just has to be done.



We arrived at the hell hole called Sevington to get our Carnet stamped and it's pot luck whether you are there for 15 minutes or 5 hours but luck was on our side and we were in and out in 30 minutes.



Then is was down to Dover and we were expecting big delays due to holiday traffic but it seems 6.00 am on a Tuesday morning is a good time and we were straight on a ferry for a cruise across the channel. We don't use the tunnel with these trailers as they are so low. The train is horrible to get on and off in a truck and you can cause a lot of expensive damage very quickly.

 

[glenn2926]

Interesting, please keep it coming.

 

[Davey B]

Is the pic showing the height of the trailer, its running height or does it raise a bit...ground clearance looks terrible.

 

[MikeS]

Love these truck reports.

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Let me explain what double manning actually means.

The truck can have 2 drivers with a tacho card. The tachograph in teh truck has 2 slots for drivers 1 and 2. When you are driving, you insert your card in slot 1 which records your driving hours whilst the other drivers card goes into slot 2 which records rest but confirms you are actually in the truck.

Having 2 drivers on duty means each driver can do 10 hours total driving in a duty time of 21 hours which means that in this case, we went on duty at 23.00 on Monday night and we have until 20.00 on Tuesday night before we have to stop and have a minimum of a 9 hour break.

Still with me?

There are other rules you have to adhere to depending on what else you have done that week but that's basically it.

Under these rules, the trucks barely stops and the hour spare gives you time to fuel, do a driver change, grab a coffee etc etc. Normally, you need a 45 minute break after 4.5 hours but in a double manning scenario, you just change your card into slot 2 and jump into the passenger seat.

In our case, we hit the 21 hour duty time before teh max driving time because of the ferry crossing which in total was about 4 hours with check in, wait to board, unload and clear customs.

One of the strange things about double manning is you have to have your rest time sitting in the passenger seat which in this case is an air suspended and air conditioned armchair. You would think they would let you rest or have a kip in the bunk but that's against the rules.

Just a word about the truck. It's an MAN TGX 26-520 kicking out around 520 bhp so at our gross weight of about 30 tonnes she's well on top of the job. I worked for MAN for about 12 years so have a soft spot for the marque. They went through some tough times recently with some inferior products but they bounced back with this latest TGX which I think is a fantastic piece of kit.

Anyway, off the ferry and round to get our carnet stamped which takes all of 10 minutes and is always supplied with a smile. Why the hell our lot can't be this efficient and friendly is quite beyond me.



Heading south on the lovely quiet roads of France. Some people find them a little dull but with cruise on, good music playing and very little traffic it just doesn't get better in my opinion.



Better top the old girl up with diesel and it really makes you wince. At 10.3 mpg she's good on fuel but hell, it a huge expence at 2.30 euro a litre.




After a really easy drive down we get to a services called Le Poulet near Bourg en Bress just as we get to our duty time. We figured this would be our destination so we'd booked a hotel room for me and Liam would sleep in the truck.

French service stations are notoriously difficult to park in as there just aren't enough parking spaces and generally, if you aren't there by about 5 pm you are doomed. Luckily we go a spot near the fuel pumps which was safe and in plain view in case anyone wanted to take a peek inside.......!

We'd done just shy of 800 miles in a shift which isn't bad going so it was time for a snooze.

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Is the pic showing the height of the trailer, its running height or does it raise a bit...ground clearance looks terrible.

That's it's running height which is around 6 inches. You have to be really carefull over speed humps and getting on and off the ferry can be difficult but you can alter the trailer and tractor height for this on the air suspension.

I've seen a fair amount of expensive damage done when someone has not been concentrating............!!

 

[Sgt Bilco]

So it's up early for a 5.00 am departure as we have to be in Monza around lunchtime.



We discussed who would drive over the Alps and Liam wanted to do it so I'd take the stint into Milan and Monza. He's not passed his test long but is a long term employee of Hay Fisher. He's driven loads of times down here in vans but not in a truck so he wanted me to give him advice and the way to tackle the big hills and especially to descents which was fine by me. I've been about a bit so it's nice to pass on my experience and knowledge.

The big plus for me is I get to look out of the window at the scenery.



I'm sure many of you have driven or ridden down here and it's got to be among my favourite places to drive.

This section is notorius amongst truck drivers as it climbs over a town and is on stilts. I'm sure people like @Aidan1150 have some stiries about this part of the alps!! Back in the day, trucks would be struggling up here but with 520bhp on tap it's an easy climb and nice to actually see the scenery around.



I'm actually getting paid for this.........




Then after a couple of hours we start the climb to the tunnel which is quite steep and twisty.



We pay the tunnel fee which is....are you sitting down?........630 euros return for a truck. It's 500 one way so 630 return sounds reasonable!!

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Liam wants a pic to prove to his G/F that he has actually taken a truck through Mont Blanc tunnel.



Then it's on through the "pipe" and it's very quiet.



And out the other side and of course we know have to go down hill. Not many pics as I was explaining the art of using the retarder and engine braking to make the descent easy and comfortable and most important safe. Getting a truck down long descents can be tricky if your are inexperienced and the last thing you need is to run out of brakes.......!! Many have with fatal consequences.

The MAN is equipped with a relly good engine brake so it was a nice smooth drive down and I hope Liam learned a bit from teh old codger in teh passenger seat.




We got down to Aosta and it was time for me to take the helm for the trip into Monza circuit.



Nice simple run in today with little traffic around Milan which is rare. It's normally like wacky races but quiet today.











Then it was into Monza circuit to drop teh truck off and have a well earned coffee.

 

[glenn2926]

Great write up. I’m guessing you’re using the Mount Blanc tunnel. I use it a couple of times a year as my lad lives in Servoz near Chamonix and has a brewery and bar in Chamonix so we’re there pretty regularly.
It’s just under €100 return for the motorhome. Still better than a 5 hour drive round though.

 

[walkingpictures]

That's a great write up Sergeant,enjoyed reading it,thankyou

Kimbo

 

[Gavla04GS]

Good write up and great way for newbies to learn, having a mentor in the passenger seat. Still impressive doing all that and being on the wrong side of the road
Always feel sorry as I watch the continental cousins in their left hand drive rigs, coping with fiddly mini roundabouts and twattish drivers giving wagons no space. Your journey looked pleb-free.

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Normally, I don't get too involved in the prep of the cars and utilise my time doing a bit of basic catering, keep the truck and workshop tidy and generally making myself busy.

They were a bit short of man power for the weekend so I was press ganged into helping Steve do the tyres and Feck me sideways it's hard work.

Each car has multiple tyre sets for practice, qualifying and the race and you cannit mix them up. Everything is controlled by Pirelli and if you use teh wrong tyres for the wrong session, all hell breaks loose!!

My first job was to wash the rims of the cars after they had been out as keeping everything spotless is all part of the game.

Using some nice Liqui Moly wheel cleaner helps the job along nicely.




Of course I'm stuffed out the back away from the shop front as is were.

Just a point here, I suffer from Atrial Fibrilation which is an irregular heart beat. It's controlled with meds but the heat and hard physical work will tire (excuse the pun) very quickly and my doctor just says avoid it. So here we are, 38c and me slinging wheels and tyres around like a 20 year old I know my limits though so work at my own pace and take regular breaks. The team know about it and are suitably unsympathetic as you would expect.




First day passes quickly and as we arrive at our hotel the heavens opened and cooled the whole place down.



A nive bit of food and a cold one and all is well with the world.






Both cars are prepped to within an inch of their lives and qualify for the 2 races in decent position. 62 is P5 and 61 is a little further back at P17 which isn't too bad out of about 50 starters in GT4.

Everyone is happy as the Mustangs have serious pace.

My important jb is to do the pressures and tyre temps on 62. You would think it's a fairly simple job but I can tell you, when you are on the grid or in the pits, working at high speed in 40c and completely out of your comfort zone, you might as well be climbing Everest. I haven't felt pressure like it for years but slowly you get a bit more confident and you somehow get the job done. The pressure comes from not wanting to klet anyone down and have the finger pointed at you if there is an issue!





There are one hour races on both Saturday and Sunday so it's pretty full on. There is a driver change half way through and my job then is to check the pressures to make sure they are within tolerance which is a manic minutes as peopel do their job on a very very hot race car!!

Race one gets off to a bad start as Cam Mcloud who's an Aussie who's flown in for the race jump started and got a 10 second penalty which effectively pushed him off the podium and he and Marco came in 7th. They would have podiumed easily without the penalty but everyone isn't too bothered as they know the car has the pace to win the second race.

Pics are few and far between as it's a bit hectic in the pits and at race time.

Cars are back in the awning and it's a late night prepping for tomorrow and we got back to the hotel at about 11pm



Back to the circuit and get ready for the second race on Sunday.

 

[Sgt Bilco]

This is on the grid before the race and it's very surreal. I've seen loads of this stuff on the telly but never ever dreamt I'd actually be on the grid doing a job. Just goes to prove you are never too old to do something new.

The guy in white is Cam the Aussie and the guy next to him is Marco who is a regular driver from Canada. Both top guys but very different in their approach to racing.

















The guys here were the mechanics on 62 or my car as I liked to call it along with Marco.



This is Marco getting strapped in



And here is the car half way through the race at driver changeover. It's one minute of high intensity drama with everythjng red hot and unbelievable pressure!




My car, 62, came in third and 61 came in 7th so everyone is obviously delighted.

Sadly, I haven't got any more pics as the work load goes through the roof as we have to derig and load the trucks as soon as possible.

The team have a media guy and he sent me these.

I have to say I look almost professional

 

[Sgt Bilco]

A couple of the stars of the show. They are some bits of kit I can tell you and probably the most popular cars on the grid. People love seeing them and hearing them as that V8 has an unbelievable noise.



After a few hours of hot sweaty work, we get the trucks loaded. I'm taking one of the Academy trucks home so instead of MAN 520 power I've now got 730 Scania horses to take me home.

There are two trucks and me and Harry decided to run for a couple of hours toward Aosta and park up to avoid the morning Milan shit show.



We left at 8pm and the roads were just about empty which was good. Monza is actually situated in a huge park in the centre of town which is awkward but I'm pretty sure the locals don't complain one bit



Top up with a bit of go juice as it's marginally cheaper in Italy. These two beast are only doing about 8.5 mpg so every penny cnuts.

The trailer I have got on is an absolute beauty of a thing. It's basically used as the office and driver rooms at the races but it's now crammed full of all sorts of stuff from teh awning to pit bikes. There are 2800 items on the carnet and customs can ask to look at any one thing if they decided to!! Good luck with that.

We pull into Aosta at about 11pm, grabbed a shower and got our heads down.

One of the joys of this job is waking up to views like this!





A quick coffee and pastry and it's time to head off at about 9 as we are in no big hurry.

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Good write up and great way for newbies to learn, having a mentor in the passenger seat. Still impressive doing all that and being on the wrong side of the road
Always feel sorry as I watch the continental cousins in their left hand drive rigs, coping with fiddly mini roundabouts and twattish drivers giving wagons no space. Your journey looked pleb-free.

It's actually easier abroad in many respects. There is a lot less traffic and people are generally a bit more forgiven.

Even the Italians are fairly cool about stuff. They will beep their horns and wave their arms but come past you waving

Liam was very appreciative of me giving him advice and it's nice to pass on my many years of experience.

 

[Oldrat]

Hats off to you Sargy.

Great write up, I enjoyed that a lot, nice to see a different perspective, of both that route, and the racing.

Thanks

 

[Oldrat]

Those tractor units and those trailers look the part, impressive bits of kit

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Those tractor units and those trailers look the part, impressive bits of kit

I won't tell you the value..........

 

[Sgt Bilco]

So off we go up Mont Blanc and it's 30c already.

All the information I need reference my drivers hours etc is on the dash and Scania always like to remind you you are in a V8. We have a fairly easy day today and have booked a hotel half way up through France. Sleeping in the truck is avoided were possible

It's a little steeper on the Italian side so the 730 Swedish horses get to extend themselves a bit but the trucks just are effortless.

I forgot to mention that all trucks have to go through a control area before heading up to the tunnel. You may remember there was a devastating fire some years ago so they are trying to avoid this happening again. You get a cursory check then they give you a ticket to proceed.







After 30 mins of lovely views we get to the tunnel.

 

[Sgt Bilco]

They have a system to control the trucks going through teh tunnel so they make you wait about 30 seconds between trucks.



Then it's in you go with a speed limit of 70km/h.



Out the other side and the engine brakes in full use again. These trucks have the Scania 4 stage retarder which is amazing. You rarely need to use the footbrake and it will bring the truck to a full stop if you wanted it to.






And it's down over the stilts again and the drop is heart stopping. A few have been through the barriers over the years and that's not happening today so slow and steady!