CANADIAN TRUCK NATIONALS

Article and photos by Wes Kibble
View the remainder of the photos on the Off Road Action Webshots page.

The 13th Annual Canadian Truck Nationals is over, but the excitement is not! The Radical Rides Truck Club put on another great event in London, ON. There were over 300 show trucks from all over Canada and the eastern states, along with some high flying tough trucks and the Rap Attack monster truck.



We arrived Saturday morning just after the gates opened and immediately walked over to the tough truck racing section to find our good friend Ed "Pacman" Sanderson stuck in the mud pit. It seems that Ed, one of the lowest vehicles in the line up, elected to go through the course first. Looking over into the pit, there were a variety of vehicles that entered into the contest. There was everything from the small, fast trackers and Vitaras to a Cherokee on 44" boggers to basically full-blown race trucks. We knew just by looking at the different types of vehicles that it would be a very interesting and exciting race. Then, there was the track!!! Overall, the course was very tight and rough. It started off with two large jumps (which, if you underestimated the size of the jumps, could take you directly off the track) followed by an immediate left turn and a set of high moguls. If you thought that was enough, the drivers then hit a third jump, followed by some rumble strips, another left turn, and then two sets of stacked railway ties and yes, you guessed it, another jump. The drivers then came upon a sharp left hand turn (this put you almost beside the starting line) which was too sharp for the larger trucks, who, in order to remain on the track and not be hit with a 15 second penalty for going off the track, had to do a 3 point turn. Following the sharp left were 2 more jumps, the rumble strips, and a sweeping left hand turn before the launch into the two foot deep mud pit in front of the stands. At the end of the mud pit, the trucks were launched out and into a second jump, which ended up breaking a lot of vehicles upon impact. If the drivers chose not to go into the mud pit, they were penalized with 15 seconds added on top of their finish time. The time varied from 27 seconds to over a minute and even some that were timed with a calendar (or so it seemed).



The first round was highlighted by the driver of the only Toyota pickup in the group launching the truck on the first jump. The massive airtime gave the driver a DNF and a flat front tire, but the crowd loved it! The remaining rounds on Saturday provided many high flying acrobatics into the mud pit, resulting in a bent front end in the red Chevy flatdeck and a broken transfer case in the Bronco. It was quite apparent from the beginning that the 2 most stock vehicles and the 2 most heavily modified vehicles would be vying the win. As usual, it was impressive to see Pete Mathews and Jim Taite thrashing their Vitara and Tracker and placing in the top four. Ed Sanderson, in his yellow Class 4 "Hummer" and Kevin Aube in his Class 7 S-10 rounded out the top four. Kevin's heavily modified mini truck was especially impressive in the fact that while it is only 2wd; it consistently placed in the top four all weekend. These four drivers are regulars in the Ontario Off Road Racing Association series that hosts wheel to wheel and tough truck races all over southern Ontario.



By the time the finals came around on Sunday, these four drivers were still at the top. Ed's top time of 33 seconds was beaten by Pete in the Vatari with a 32.14 second run on the very last run of the day on Saturday. Sunday continued with these four battling it out. One person would pull a faster time, then the others would better it. For the final run, the promoter ran the top ten fastest trucks in descending order. In the end, Ed ran a 27 second run, beating his own fastest time of 28 seconds, to win the event overall. After his Hummer styled vehicle slid to a stop, Ed stood on the truck to wave to the crowd, which roared with their approval. Congratulations to all competitors as everyone ran hard all weekend long. A special round of congratulations goes to the 2002 Canadian Truck Nationals Tough Truck Champion, Ed Sanderson. This is the first win for Ed's new truck. He has been working the bugs out all season long and the win in London was most deserving.



There was 6 runs made by each driver over the weekend, with their slowest 2 times thrown out. JP Atkinson and Ray Jennings brought their racing buggies out on Sunday for demonstration purposes. Even though Ray chickened out and went around the mud, they still put on an awesome show. Perhaps if there is enough interest there will be a buggy class for next year? The weekends overall top ten finishers were as follows:

1st Ed Sanderson, Consecon On, 1970 Hummer 128.13
2nd Pete Matthews, Eden On, 1999 Suzuki Vitara 131.8
3rd Jim Tait, Eden On. Suzuki Sidekick 149.74
4th Kevin Aube, St Catherines On, 1987 Chev S10 2WD 154.99
5th Kenneth Melanson, Ingersol, On, 1987 GMC 209.79
6th Jim Summerville, Ingersol, On, 1979 Chev 314.99
7th John Melanson, Ingersol, On, 1978 Chev 326.99
8th Scott Southerlin, Embro, On, 1990 Bronco DID NOT RUNN ALL 6
9th Rob Lagrou, Thorndale, On, 1985 Chev DID NOT RUNN ALL 6
10th Rob Gingras, Burlington On., 1975 Land Cruiser DID NOT RUNN ALL 6



As always, events like this would not be possible without sponsors that donate time, money and door prizes. I would like to thank the following sponsors for donating prizes for the top ten finishers.
1st California Carsmetics
2nd Maxmillan Excavating
3rd Cami
4th Colour Shop
5th Hawk 109.9
6th Rocky's Harley shop
7th National 4wd Centre
8th Bell Canada
9th Lynex Coating
10th London's best rock fm 96



The Radical Rides Club put on a great show and I will definitely be returning next year. The club raised over ,100 for Cystic Fibrosis. For more information, be sure to check out their Canadian Truck Nationals website.