With its bright yellow paintwork and sleek styling, the #19 Kenworth of Dale Cornfoot has this year become both a fan favourite and front runner in the Australian Super Truck Racing Series.
Based out of Dubbo, NSW, the BDK Racing team, with Dale at the wheel, came home second in the national championship in its debut season, with the Cat-powered Kenworth showing a clean set of heels to its opposition on a number of occasions.
During the week Dale oversees a large fleet of civil construction equipment through his BDK Earthmoving operation, and having raced karts in his younger years, he had previously made the step up to truck racing with the Tringali racing team before taking a break from the sport.
But when the Kenworth came up for sale Dale was soon back on the track with his own team.
“I raced karts for about 10 years so had a fair bit of experience in them,” Dale explained.
“I was familiar with driving a truck so put two and two together and off we went. Tringali’s gave me a bit of a go in their Transtar as a co-driver for about two seasons. Work got the better of me, so I had to give it up for a while but as soon as this one came up for sale that brought us back.”
Taking on the Kenworth and with sponsorship from Gulf Western Oil, the BDK Racng Team soon had the truck on track and up the front of the pack, with the fettled C-13 Caterpillar engine a strong performer, pushing out north of 1000 horsepower.
“We bought it off Rob Waters in Western Australia. It started its life as a W-Model, it had been in an accident at Mallala and got rebuilt,” Dale said.
“Now it has got a T909 cab on it and the bonnet was off a 909 as well but it has been modified and raked to resemble a T950. It also had a C-11 Cat before the C-13 got put in it and it is running an Allison World Series Automatic, and we have got her going pretty well.”
While running a Cat-powered truck puts them at odds with their competitors in terms of powerplants, the ties to Cat headquarters in Peoria, Illinois are strong and Dale wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We are the odd-ball team running a Cat motor but that is what drew it to us. I would reckon 90 per cent of our civil earthmoving gear is Caterpillar. It’s the same as in our trucks, we have a T909 float truck and we took the Cummins EGR out and put a C-15 in it. I also have a 389 Peterbilt with a motor ready to go back in it – we are yellow through and through.”
Running the championship in 2025 across four states, the Kenworth was on track at Mallala in South Australia and Morgan Park in Queensland along with two visits to Winton in north-east Victoria.
The results soon started coming with a lap record and clean sweep of the races at Morgan Park and first overall at the final Winton round.
While having the speed and the race craft to run strongly, a few mechanical gremlins curtailed Dale’s charge for the championship.
“It’s a bit like riding a bike, getting used to the truck has taken a bit of time. The driveability’s not too bad considering the power. You need to be light on the pedal as it will break out into wheelspin straight away if you plant it.
“We have had some bad luck along the way too. We blew the diff up at Mallala and here at Winton in July it did a brake rotor which put us out of the last race, so we have missed about five races in total but still we’re not too bad overall on the points table.”
This year the trucks also used the ‘long track’ layout at Winton which saw them lapping around the 1m 15s mark and allows for the trucks to stretch their legs on a couple of longer straights, providing a few extra passing opportunities.
Among the competitors there is also respect shown out on the track.
“I prefer the long track as the truck suits that distance. It is harder on the brakes, but with the longer straights we can get to the 160km/h mark. On the short track some would get to 160, but it was pushing it. You need to have good drive out of the corners.
“Having the longer circuit, you have a bit more time to pass them too so you can pick and choose a bit.
“At the last Winton round, we were three trucks wide, Shannon Smith, Steve Zammit and I at the last corner and it was wet. There is racing respect for those around you too. The last two rounds we have come home with no panel damage at all which has been good; usually there is a bit, but everyone looks after each other.”
Securing second in this year’s championship, Dale reckons he can go one better in the chase for the 2026 title. With a close-knit team at the BDK Earthmoving base doing the work on the truck between events he reckons there is more to come from the #19 machine.
“We do everything at home – GTS Mechanical, Stay Loaded Mechanical and Down South Diesels all pitch in, We even have people from Melbourne come up and work on it in Dubbo.
“They all make a big effort for which we are very grateful. We will keep working on it and try and lighten it up a bit for next year. It’s a bit heavy as opposed to what it can be and it does make a big difference on the brakes having an extra 400kg you don’t have to pull up on every corner.”
The contrast between racing categories like Formula One and Supercars could not be any greater when compared to the Super Truck racing community, with strong connection and co-operation between teams out on the track and also in the garage.
“It’s so family-friendly; there’s always kids running about the garages and everyone helps everyone out. It’s like a week away for us, we make it through the weekend and hopefully take home a trophy,” Dale said.