Roger Norman at Mexicana Logistics 300
Roger Norman didn’t have the finish that he had hoped for in the Mexicana Logistics 300 last weekend. Overheating problems have consistently plagued the single seat Trophy Truck since Norman bought it, and most recently during the NORRA 1000 those issues caused the team longer finishing times. The Norman Motorsports team has continually chased options and it looked like the Ensenada Motorsports team had succeeded at finding the problems when the truck tested perfect last Thursday. Unfortunately, race day was a different story when the truck rapidly overheated and they only made it to RM12 before choosing to not take additional risks destroying the engine further.
The team, which mostly consisted of local Mexican racers, tested the truck on Thursday and it was absolutely perfect and had never been better. “After having to drive by the oil temp gauge in the NORRA Race in a cool April, I wanted to make sure that in the October 110 degree heat that we wouldn’t have the same problem,” remembers Norman. “After testing, I felt confident that we would have an excellent race.”
Saturday morning, race day, something changed. No one knows what happened. But it was overheating with no fix in sight. “I buckled in and took the truck down and back to warm up the engine when I saw the water temp gauge spike to 250 degrees. I shut down the truck and radioed to the crew for assistance. They tried to burp the radiator, and they thought they got the air bubble out, but we could never get the gauge to show cooler,” explains Norman. “By this time, I was late to the starting line. We decided that with only 12 miles to the first pit, that we should at least start the race and limp to the pit to try and fix it there and it just may pass the air pocket on its own.”
Norman took the green flag going the slowest that he has ever gone in a truck, and limped it along hoping to clear the problem. The gauge fluctuated from 215-250 degrees as Norman attempted to go as slow as he could without getting stuck in silt beds and sand wash’s. After only 12 miles, they called the race. “The truck was perfect. Not sure what happened, if it was a head gasket that went bad or what caused the air bubble, but it made for a very short race,” said Norman.
credits: Roger Norman Press release
