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Wednesday 26th December -Website Update
•News page updated
•2008 Race Dates Added
•ROGE career stats updated
•Sponsors updated

Sunday 16th December -Teams Meeting
Today, all the teams met at Corby to listen to SONNY HOWARD’S plans for pickup truck racing for next year.

We have now shown the dates on our dates and results pages and you will see that the dates provided are going to be unmissable especially once you read that many of the events will also include the ‘big trucks’ and the exciting legend cars.

As soon as we have more information, we will update it here.

Saturday 15th December -Happy Birthday DAD!
The whole team would like to wish ‘Pa ROGE’ (CHRIS) a very happy birthday.

Have a great day CHRIS.

Sunday 3rd and 4th November -Rounds 19 and 20
ROGE drove two excellent races today at the final two rounds at Brands Hatch to come home the 10th highest overall points scorer at this event.

Further report to follow.

Wednesday 24th October -60 and still young!
The whole team would like to wish ‘mummy ROGE’ (KAREN) a very happy 60th birthday.

Karen is having a party on Saturday and I’m sure gossip and maybe some pictures will appear on the website soon after.

Have a great day KAREN.

Sunday 21st October -Rounds 17 and 18
This weekend saw the team at Pembrey in Wales for the penultimate pair of rounds until the season finale at Brands Hatch in two weeks time.

ROGE had practiced at the South Wales track some three years ago and was in fact the first venue that ROGE drove the truck in anger (albeit only in practice conditions).

Following a successful practice, the #69 truck started race one on the second row and right from the start thrilled the team and shocked the other competitors with his pace. ROGE stuck within the top four for the majority of the race whilst battling with star names and championship contenders Nic Grindrod and Steve Dance. A late error on one of the corners allowed Pete Stevens to nip through but still the team was ecstatic with a 5th place finish. The best result of ROGE’s pickup truck career.

For race two, ROGE started mid pack and once again was holding his own with some of the other more established stars. Towards the end of the race, ROGE started to have his own battle as his tyres started to lose grip, however, he held on to bring the truck home in 9th position to complete his first ever top ten ‘double’ in pickup truck racing.

The team where obviously jumping for joy after the days results especially after the poor season we have had prior to this event. ROGE however, put the days success down to DEAN as DEAN wasn’t present as he is currently holidaying in Egypt. The team are now desperately trying to find a sponsor to send DEAN on another holiday for the next event at Brands Hatch!

Well done to ROGE and his hard working crew and of course the family. Today’s success was just reward for keeping the faith through the not so good times....................., maybe a podium at Brands ROGE?

For the official race reports, results , championship standing and photos, please visit www.pickuptruckracing.com

Monday 15th October -Harry and Vinnie 6 today!
A big happy birthday to our valued team members of Harry and Vinnie who are 6 today.

They are currently on holiday in Egypt with Mum and Dad (Tracy and Dean) and they will all be missed on the teams visit to Pembrey next weekend.

Have a great day lads.

Thursday 20th September -Happy Anniversary to Mum and Dad ROGE (a.k.a. KAREN and CHRIS)
The team would like to wish Karen and Chris many happy returns for today as they celebrate their wedding anniversary.

The couple are currently holidaying with day trips and in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset and are very much looking forward to a romantic weekend away in Perranporth. We wish to assure you that pictures of their lovers weekend away will not be appearing on this site, however, information may be available at www.itgetsbetterwithage.com (according to SARGE!)

Have a great day and holiday.

Monday 17th September -Rounds 15 and 16
This weekend saw the team back at Rockingham, which was great as we missed the last event on the 1.5 mile super oval due to an engine shortage!

Saturday morning saw the #69 truck take part in a practice and a qualifying session. Hearts sank quickly during the practice when ROGE was seen cruising around the track whilst reporting that he was ‘flat out!’. Upon inspection back in the garage, it was found that the throttle linkage had worked loose so the team repaired the problem and got the truck ready for the qualifying period.

In qualifying, ROGE looked like he was much more up to pace although he wasn’t happy with the handling. A few adjustments were made to the shock absorbers and ROGE went out for a few more laps to report that it was better but still not great. With the qualifying session being shortened due to time restraints, the team were unable to try anything else.

For race one, ROGE elected to start from the rear of the grid as he felt that he wasn’t quick enough with the truck as it was to start at the front.

With the race underway, ROGE was unable to mount a challenge to the main back and was running by himself for the majority of the race. Although frustrating, ROGE was keen to use this time to get laps under his belt as due to so many none finishes and missed races, he hadn’t actually had that many laps around Rockingham this year.

There was however some relief to see the truck complete the race  to bring home a result of 18th position.

For race two, once again the team elected to start off the back.

Much to the teams surprise, ROGE took off at the start and looked to be running strong but with only the laps just in double figures was informing the crew that the truck was not happy in the corners and was very twitchy. With the aim being to bring the truck home in one piece, ROGE started to ease off more and more into the corners.

With this race being more of one of survival rather than glory, the #69 truck was brought home once again in 18th position making this only the second  event of 2007 where the truck completed both race distances.

With the oval events mow over for 2007, the team will now set about changing the set-up of the truck ready for the next two circuit events.

For the official race reports, results , championship standing and photos, please visit www.pickuptruckracing.com

See also the team photos by clicking on the ‘team photos’ link above

Monday 3rd September -Time to catch up!
Firstly, please accept our apologies for our absence on the internet. due to the moving offices of our press officer and the delay in getting the computers back on-line, we have been unable to to provide our normal wealth of knowledge and wit! The goods news part (or bad, depending how you feel!) is that we are now back........................and we have even settled our bill with the web hosting company and they have put the site back on-line (well, until the realise that the cheque is a bit bouncy!)

The engine saga continues!
Although this next bit might sound made up, it’s not, so bear with us!

After the engine failure at Rockingham in July, the decision was made to send it back to our engine builder rather than keep cobbling it together ourselves with spare bits and pieces (a bit like the A-team used to do when they could make a tank out of a paper cup, staplers and an elastic band!) This was a great plan apart from the fact that the engine builder was away for the month of August holidaying in Canada. No a problem, we would wait, although it would mean that we would miss the August Rockingham meeting which wasn’t what we wanted.

The engine builder returns after a month and we were hoping to get the rebuilt engine back ready for Brands Hatch.

The first day back and the engine builder steps into his workshop, stumbles and breaks his wrist!.............now he is in plaster for 6 weeks!

Faced with another challenge (not problem!), the team arrange to pick up the non-rebuilt engine and return to our workshops to once again rebuild it ourselves. Although by no means the ideal solution, ROGE and the team were keen to get back on track as soon as possible and did not want another no-show.

With the team now on it’s fourth rebuild, ROGE vowed that this was going to be the last time for this year. “If it breaks again, it will be sent to it’s room for the rest of the year”, growled ROGE.

Brands Hatch -Rounds 13 and 14
This was certainly a meeting that could of broke the remainder of the teams spirit.

Once again the crew had worked hard to put together the engine ready for this meeting and things did not start off well when during practice, all the water was lost from the engine due to a head gasket failure.

Once back into the paddock, ROGE was clearly deflated and for the first time this year, he looked like he had finally had enough. Many people came over to see what the problem  was but the look on ROGE’s face said it all (it was definitely one of those moments where saying nothing was best!)

After an hour, and a couple of spirit raisers (beers!), ROGE was back to his normal self and was now ready to fight on. The team soon took off the head and set about replacing the head gasket. The team worked late into the night and even saw DEAN falling asleep in the garage during the job!

With the morning came renewed optimism . This was raised even further when NIC GRINDROD came over chatting and offered ROGE  advice on why the water system might be pressuring up. The team took on board his words of wisdom and set about making the changes.

Whilst waiting for the first race, ROGE was now pondering on the setting of the diff as he said that he was struggling to get the power down out of the corners. A quick decision by the crew resulted in the team  jacking up the truck and started to remove the diff to make the adjustments.

The team quickly carried out the work with only a small amount of time remaining prior to the start of the race.

For race one, and due to breaking the control seals on the head and diff, ROGE started towards the back of the grid and much to the delight of the team, put in a fantastic performance battling with previous race winners in pickup truck racing, PHIL WHITE and PETE STEVENS. Such was the showing by ROGE, he even looked threatening and made several attempts to take position of the more experienced drivers.

Clearly a much better showing, with ROGE displaying a glimpse of the class that we have seen many times during his short oval career.  A great 15th position, considering ROGE started from the rear of the grid.

For race two, ROGE started on row two. A fantastic start saw ROGE stick with the lead pair for a handful of laps and as the race evolved, ROGE continued to mark his presence on the proceedings.

At half race distance and still in the lead pack, a huge cloud of smoke erupted from the rear of the #69 truck and ROGE pulled in.

Further investigation showed that the gearbox blew but on the plus side, the engine was still running.

A disappointing start and end to this event but still it added a bit of encouragement to the team going into the last few events of the season.

With that performance, the team are certainly looking forward to returning to Brands Hatch in November.

Sunday 22nd July -Rockingham -Rounds 9 and 10
It couldn’t happen three times in a row was the ‘private joke’ being bantered around by the team prior to Sundays race. This follows a rather unwanted consistant run of losing an engine at Mondello, and then again at Rockingham for the last meeting.

But unfortunately, the joke soon turned into a re-occurring nightmare as early into the first race, just as ROGE looked to be picking up the pace following a spirited attempt to hang on at the front, a cloud of smoke was seen to come from the #69 truck coming out of turn 1, with ROGE immediately confirming that the engine had died and he was pulling off.

Once back into the garages, it appeared that there was some sort of damage to the head and the decision was made to abort the rest of the meeting.

This meant that ROGE has now been unable to gain any championship points in 6 races in a run.

Thursday 19h July -VINNIE not to be ‘spotted’
This weekend the team will be without one of our younger valued members as VINNIE came down with chickenpox this morning and will obviously be house bound for a few days.

The team would like to wish VINNIE a speedy recovery and it won’t be the same without you this weekend.

Thursday 12th July -Happy birthday ANNIE
The team would like to wish ANNIE a very happy birthday.

We hope you had a great day and we look forward to having a beer tomorrow night to celebrate.

Wednesday 11th July -Degree success for ANNIE
A big well done to ANNIE for achieving a 2.1 degree result today.

This is clearly a just reward for all the hard work you did ‘flirting’ with the examiners prior to the tests.