I wake up in my motel at Bathurst on the morning of Saturday, November 16 to the sound of steady rain. After an eight-hour drive the night before, this is not what I need for my first attendance at the Bathurst Dane Ballinger Memorial Truck Show.
Head back down on the wonderfully soft and squidgy (for a change) pillow and back to sleep with fingers crossed. Awake again to sunshine streaming around the edges of the blind. Whew!
It has been six years since The Bathurst Truck Show was renamed the Dane Ballinger Memorial Truck Show in his honour, after his passing earlier that year. Dane and some mates in the industry had launched the truck show in 2017, after some smaller, sporadic events in the past.
This year saw 197 trucks registered for the event with, as usual, a few ring-ins adding to that number. Unusually for a truck show, attendees were more than welcome to arrive with trailer(s) attached and many did so, sporting tautliners, logs and in some instances other trucks.
This added to the atmosphere of the show and Bathurst is lucky to have the space to accommodate them all.
Reminiscent of the recent Boort Truck Show, they were parked up in a – no doubt well organised – haphazard style, which left this writer wondering if he’d photographed all the trucks. ‘Best go around again,’ I thought to myself more than once.
Dean Campbell’s fleet took up a fair bit of real estate at the show with his 2018 Kenworth T900, ‘Boogie Nights’ taking pride of place.
Dean kicked off his career in 2008 with a second-hand 1996 Transtar 4700, followed by a T408 in 2010 which is still on the road with 3 million plus kilometres on the clock.
“Boogie Nights was originally ordered by Klos and it was something myself and Dane Ballinger were always keen to have,” Dean said.
“We were always having friendly bickering with each other about who was going to end up with it. Who knows how that would have played out had he been alive.
“After his passing Justin Klos turned it into a tribute to Dane. It is sort of a bittersweet truck because obviously the tribute is special but the circumstances are tragic.”
With 25 trucks, Dean hauls general freight and moved into logging, with seven trucks dedicated to that side of the business. In a neat bit of lateral thinking, he also now own the local Austral Bricks dealership after the previous owners closed down.
“We’d carted for them and when Austral approached us to take it on it made sense on a number of fronts.”
Amongst the plethora of KWs we spied a couple of highly polished white Freightliner Coronado 114s with DD15 motive power.
Belonging to Josh Lidster, the trucks run between Sydney’s Wetherill Park and the Central West with general freight.
“They are a good thing. I think they are fairly underrated,” Josh said.
“The engines are good on fuel and they have been very reliable. I did have an Argosy 14 litre at one stage which caused me a few dramas. It was a shame because for a cab over though they were very comfortable. Didn’t turn me off the brand though.”
Brett Cranston is BBB – born and bred in Bathurst. His owner/driver father got out of trucks when Brett was 14, but the trucking blood was already flowing in Brett’s veins, buying a cab over Kenworth in 2003. The business grew to 40 trucks and 60 staff.
I meet Brett in front of his Legend SAR – one of two owned by the business and comment on the nice colour palette shared amongst the fleet.
“I’m an HSV nut,” Brett replies. “The blue is Voodoo Blue, an HSV colour. I had a GTS in the same colour. The cream is Harley Birch from the Harley Davidson. The yellow trim is CAT yellow and the blue pinstripe is Shore Blue.
So why is Brett’s other SAR different to the rest of the fleet?
“Because it is our 20th anniversary edition – 2003 to 2023. We just did it in cherry red for something different. That is actually a Ford Falcon colour. Go figure?”
Brett has gradually downsized to 20 trucks due to a lack of drivers.
“A driver would resign, I would advertise the position for maybe a month and if I couldn’t fill it I sold the truck. The second hand market was very good so I was getting out of second-hand gear for more than what I owed. So we were downsizing comfortably. And that was very liberating.
“That said, my young fellow is 23 and he does B-doubles interstate. He has put the spring back into my step and sort of got me keen again, so who knows.”
There can only be one winner and this year that one winner cleaned up at Bathurst, taking home no less than five other awards in addition to Truck of the Show.
Twenty-one year-old Joey Corte drives a Legend SAR #303, owned by JDN Transport, which stands for Joe (Dad), Dom and Norm (Uncles) Corte.
He has been behind the wheel of the SAR for six months and was quick to point out that he wasn’t favoured (until recently), starting his career in a little Fuso 8-pallet rigid before moving on to a KW HR rigid.
“I am humbled to drive this,” said Joey. “I’m privileged enough for dad and my two uncles to buy me a new one and I couldn’t be more proud.”
“He’s the one who keeps it looking like this,” said Joe senior, “I’m very proud of him.”
Have you driven it dad?
“I got to pay for it, pick it up and drive it around,” Joe replied.
In addition to Truck of the Show, Joey and JDN Transport picked up Best Traditional Paint and Signage, Best Modern Art, Best Kenworth, Best Pantech up to 2021 and Best Interstate 2022-2025.
And that has to be a truck show record, surely? Congratulations to all who attended, those who won and to the organisers who staged a superb event.
- For more pictures and category winner details from the show, make sure you grab your free copy of the December 5 issue of Big Rigs from the usual outlet.