2007 News Archive

20 Nov 2007 - Gav on the Telly

Two rounds of the 2007 Championship were filmed and have now aired on both Motors TV and Men & Motors. The rounds were from Rockingham and Brands Hatch which both took place in August.

Motors TV: Programme title: Race & Rally UK
First showing at 9pm, Friday 2nd November
With at least five further showings during the week.

Men & Motors: Programme title: Club Motorsport Weekly
First showing is at 8pm, Sunday 18th November 2007
With two or three further showings during the week

There is a possibility that an edited version of the show may be broadcast on AMG's Channel Five programme in the new year.

In case anyone missed the coverage AMG offer copies of all their shows for sale on DVD. You can access AMG's shop HERE (Race & Rally UK, programme 44 - cost is £10 plus postage and packing). Surely the ideal pressie for any Gav or Pickup Fan?

Also please check out Derek Binsted's photos from Pembrey and Brands - thank you Derek

04 Nov 2007 - Gavin Wins at Brands

Gavin took his fourth win of the season today at Brands Hatch and jointly won the round with the new Champion Steve Dance. As a leading championship contender Gavin started both races from the back of the grid and came through for second place in the first race taking the fastest lap along the way. The second race was reduced to 15 laps but Gav was soon on the pace and carved his way through the field to beat Steve to the flag.

This win cemented third place in this year's championship for Gav.

Gavin is already looking forward to next season and can of course still become the first driver to claim three Pickup titles... Keep visiting us over the Winter for all the latest news.

21 Oct 2007 - Pembrey Problems

First to third in the championship in one day. Gav's weekend started badly when the diff broke in Saturday's practice session. Sunday's first race was not much better as he retired on lap eight having fought his way from the back of the 20 Truck grid to eighth place. The engine let go leaving the team just four hours to switch units.

Gav and the lads managed the swap and want to thank all those in the Pickup paddock who assisted including Steve Dance and his team.

The 54 Truck was bang on the pace in the second race, again coming from the back. Gave was seventh by lap nine, again from the back of the grid but was punted off the circuit down to 14th place. He quickly regained his composure and as much time as possiblel to climb back to eighth place at the flag.

16 Sep 2007 - Gav Back at the Top

Gav was joint second top points scorer this weekend at Rockingham taking second in Saturday's race and fourth in Sunday's. Steve Dance's demise from the first race with engine problems saw Gav back to the top of the table. Dance was back on winning form on Sunday - ironically with our own spare engine powering the 16 Truck to the victory!

More to follow.

02 Sep 2007 - Problems at Brands

Gavin was certainly on top of the timing sheets at Brands Hatch over the weekend as the 54 Truck got under not only the current spec lap record but also the right hand drive lap record in the Saturday practice session.

Gav carried the pace through to the first race where he carved his way through the field to challenge Kelly Jayne Wells for the win on the last lap. Kelly's Truck got very loose as the pair of them exited Druids and the two tango'd allowing several others through. Gav recovered to take fifth immediately behind Steve Dance.

The 54 Truck was bang on the pace in the second race as well - at least until lap 12 when something broke on the rear end and Gav found himself slipping down the order. He nursed the Truck home to 16th place.

19 Aug 2007 - Rockingham Update

Gavin overcame Paul Poulter's dominance at Rockingham in the race on Sunday thanks to a perfectly timed late run down the inside of Nic Grindrod on turn four at Rockingham. Paul Poulter went outside on four but switched back to the inside for the run for the flag only to be pipped by Gav in #54.

Gavin has now retaken the lead of the championship from Steve Dance as we move to Brands Hatch in two weeks time.

Report from Gav now online.

23rd Jul 2007 - Rockingham Update

Gavin very nearly overcame Paul Poulter's dominance at Rockingham in the first race on Sunday but was again thwarted by the smallest of margins and had to be content with second position.

The second race saw Gav through the traffic pretty quick once again and leading for three laps but he got caught on the outside line and was passed by several cars to wind up in fifth position. The net result of the weekend is that Gav is second in the championship behind Steve Dance by just 10 points (two race places).

25 Jun 2007 - Wet, Wet, Wet

Not a bad day's work for Gav - second place in the first race and two fastest laps. Visibility problems kept the Truck down the order in the second race but Gav still leads the championship. Gav's notes to follow. Race one was a Pickup classic wth Paul Poulter starting at the front and Gav at the back. Poulter zoomed off into the distance as Gav dealt with the traffic but #54 caught #74 by lap ten. The pair played cat and mouse for the remaining 25 laps with Gav making the final move on turn four of the last lap, drawing level on the line - the pair only being separated by 7/1000ths of a second!

14 Jun 2007 - Twins?

Continuing the family album theme - thanks Gav for providing a pic of Dale with his twin brother...

13 Jun 2007 - Gav Still on Top

Gav's report | Pics

The team have come away from Mondello Park still in the lead of the 2007 Pickup Truck Championship. Gav was fourth in the first race from the back of a twenty plus grid. In the second race there was a collision with Steve Dobbs which put Gav right to the back of the field but a superb recovery drive saw him climb back to a fifth place finish.

The team would all like to congratulate Pete Stevens on his maiden Pickup Truck racing win in the opening race.

06 Jun 2007 - Mondello Preview

After another front panel, wing, new screen and paint (left) we are all ready for Mondello Park. Poodles has put what we hope is a good setup on the car with only a few tweeks to make trackside.

I have been learning the track online like everyone else in trucks probably! The Pickups last made an appearance at Mondello in 1997, and I think none of the current drivers have raced there in Trucks so this weekend is gonna be good.

There's sure to be loads of action and plenty of rubbing - lets just hope we stay clean. Two top six finishes and we will be in good shape. The Seager/Hypercoils Truck has had a make over with the addition of an orange strip across the front and down the sills. Dale reckons it's hard to spot - I just think he's getting old.

Any way if any of you decide to make the trip across the pond please stop in and say hi - you're always wecome.

24 May 2007 - Gallery & Stats following Croft

Pictures from Croft are now online - either use the link above or go to the pictures page.

Gav passed a milestone in terms of Pickup Truck Racing career points at Croft. He has now broken the 20,000 points barrier. The only other driver who has scored more points in the formula is Pistol Pete Wilkinson.

Also thanks to Michelle @ Seager Home Solutions for the pic of young Gav doing one of his earliest wheel changes (left)...

20 May 2007 - Gav Doubles Up

Two wins from two races - both from the back of the grid - saw Gavin move into the overall Championship lead at Croft over the weekend. Gav started both races from the back of the grid and therefore had to work extremely hard to overcome the rest of the 21 truck field to win both races. His nearest challenger was Steve Dance who finished as runner up both times. Steve moves into second place in the championship. Gav's report.

14 May 2007 - Croft Preview

"Croft - Round 2. After a better start to the season at Rockingham this year we are all looking forward to our return to Croft. After a win and a 12th in 2006 we are looking to build on this and would be satisfied with two top six finishes. With the changes that have been forced apon us pre-season this would be a good base to build on.

We have done testing at Brands and Snetterton and the 2007 car has outdone anything we have had before so fingers crossed. As for set-up this obviouslly changes a lot from the Rock with left and right hand turns, gear changes and braking zones. This in turn makes the chages we have to make more important. We have to make sure pads and discs are 100% and also that the brake bias is where we need it. Obviously depending on the weather this will also change.

The whole team have been working hard on preparing the car - we have had panels to get repaired and sprayed. Our allocated tyres were delivered on Tuesday ready for stagger and setup this week.

The car wil be ready by Wednesday - please come over and say hi at the weekend. The kettle wil be warm and let's hope the weather is too." - Gav

01 May 2007 - Poodles and Parson join the Team

We are pleased to announce two new additions to the team for 2007. Following what can only be described as a turbulent week leading up to the first round at Rockingham last weekend, we are pleased to confirm the welcome addition of two new faces to the team, "Poodles" (Craig Slater, left) as Crew Chief and Dale Parson as spotter.

Both come with a wealth of experience and acheivements in their respective fields and we see this as a positive step towards achieving our goal of a third championship in an ever increasingly competitive Pickup Truck series.

We would like to take this opportunity of thanking both Darren and Dave for their support in the past and offer them best wishes for the future, Darren has decided to spend more time with his family whilst Dave has returned to his first love of Historics.

29 April 2007 - 3rd & 4th at Rockingham

Gav had a good start to the season with 3rd and 4th places in today's racing at Rockingham. The Seager Home Solutions machine ran in the front group throughout the weekend and this can only be seen as an indicator that Gavin is a serious contender for this year's overal and Rockingham titles.

Gav's in depth report is here.

24 April 2007 - Rockingham over the weekend.

Gavin reports from the weekend... "The touring car weekend I think was an eye opener for every one associated with SCSA and Pickups. When we arrived Saturday morning early I couldn’t believe the activity in the outer paddock. With everything going on it was easy to forget the real reason we were there. The reason being to promote what we all love and work so hard to achieve at every meeting we attend, close racing and action packed weekends for the whole family.

After setting everything up including awnings and bill boards we all knew this was going be a long weekend but the lads on my team didn’t rest for a minute, putting everything they had into practice over the course of the weekend. I reckon 40,000 people walked past our setup and probably at least a quarter of whom stopped to ask question and look over the number 54 and 4 (Pete Stevens) truck.

With Saturday and Sunday almost over our weekend was about to get busy, we had to dismantle everything and load up just to move half mile into the centre paddock and prepare for our first test at the Rock. With just me and Justin and a hand from team 66 (Martin Heath) this wasn’t as bad as first thought. We had to wait till half nine before we could get into our garage #21. We unloaded and started to prepare the 54 truck for battle this wasn’t as hard a task as first thought.

After adjusting ride heights we then positioned the car on the scale pads to see what we where dealing with as it turned out it all sort of fell into place, we packed up and called it a night about 3:30am knowing we had caster and camber adjustments left to do before the first session.

No sooner my head hit the pillow it was time to get up. With rookies on track first to finish their training there was no panic, truck fuelled, tracking done, wheel nuts torqued and shock settings applied we were ready for testing. First job was to scrub our six allocated tyres for next weekend before the rain came down, after which we fitted four part worn tyres to the truck and proceeded to complete eight fast laps. I came into the pits and the team went to work on temperatures and pressures - all looking fine. We made a few minor adjustments to the car and did the same again not even bothering to time the truck.

We decided just before dinner that we had done enough packing everything up just before the rain came. Then back to the yard to prepare for the first meeting. I hope to see u all there. Thanks to Kevin Knights, Alan Hill,and Justin clarke for their efforts this weekend its greatly appreciated."

17 April 2007 - 54 on Show plus HELP WANTED!

The 54 Truck will be on display at the BTCC round at Rockingham this coming weekend so come along and say hello!

***HELP WANTED*** We are expanding our operation and have Vacancies for: a) Mechanic(s) b) Spotter c) Tyre Technician. Contact us for more information

02 April 2007 - Fun Page...

We've set up a fun page on site and the first feature is a competition to find out "how did Gav do that?" at Brands recently. Good luck.

28th March 2007 - Brands Test, Report...

"Got all the lads out of bed early as we needed to be on-track in the first session. Arrived in a timely fashion at 7.35, unloaded, and were first vehicle on the circuit at 9.00 sharp. Gav wasted little time in getting down to business, and was turning in race-pace laps after 5 hot circuits. Some changes were made to the brake-bias, and then the only problem of the day appeared in the form of a broken throttle-cable bracket resulting in Gav only getting 90% throttle and a consequential drop-off in performance. Returned to the paddock to effect repairs...

Back out in the second session with full throttle restored, and a change of left-side rubber for something in a bit better shape. The day had warmed considerably by now, with air temperatures breaking the 50 degree mark, but with a track temp of still only 48. Concentrated on shock settings, & ran a total of 24 laps in the session before it was red-flagged due to a Peugeot re-arranging the shape of its bodyshell in a roll at Paddock. Logged several laps in the low 53 second range, and the driver expressed himself as happy with the overall setup.

The third session was run after lunch with temperatures in the mid-60's. We concentrated on consolidating our best settings from the morning's experimentations, and were pleased to find that we had consistant good pace on a race-start fuel load. Just for a bit of fun a "hot pad change" was carried out part-way through the session in order to finish the pad-bedding session interrupted at Snetterton, and that was it for the day. Back through the Dartford tunnel before rush-hour, and home to get ready to go racing for real..."

22nd March 2007 - First test...

Briefly: Truck completed at 6.00am yesterday (all-nighter for me - par for the course!) Truck on a good very basic set up and tyres left from last season.

Left for Snett. at 8.15.

Paused for breakfast for all by popular demand, then on-track at 11.26 (frost had melted by then - track temp. 49, air temp. 44) Slipping clutch straight off the bat, slave cylinder needed adjustment, carried out with box in truck (a useful new skill we've acquired - can now change a clutch in under an hour). Also by-passed the oil cooler as we didn't even hit 140F with the cooler hooked up. While we were busy with the Truck, Gav busied himself investigating the Polley Motorsport pit area - don't know what the attraction was there.

Back on track at 1.33, bedded new standard pads & disks, ran in crown wheel and pinion plus new diff unit. Allowed brakes to heat-soak & cool, turned Gav loose to play with brake bias with no speed restriction. He responded by turning in 5 laps out of a total of 8 quicker than we ran last year when we raced there, with a personal best 2 tenths below the fastest lap by anyone at the meeting there last year. Oil temp 190F with no cooler - more like it.

Changed pads to the very soft ones we've had rat-holed away. Gav was half way through very gently bedding them as instructed when some Wally stuffed a TF MG into the barrier and shut the track down for an extensive clean-up. We'd had a good day and couldn't see any sense in hanging around to do 4 more slow laps so packed up and were home by 5.

Team Manager pleased, crew chuffed, driver seemed happy. Lots of things to do before we try to break the track record at Brands next Wednesday.

Pictures are in the Build Gallery.

21st March 2007 - The build continues...

We can see a little more of how the Truck is coming together in the Build Gallery. We've also started to add crew biogs to the site. Enjoy!

10th March 2007 - More pics of new build

We can now see a little more of how the 2007 Pickup is coming together in the Build Gallery

20th February 2007 - New Pickup Being Built

"A veil of secrecy cloaks the Seager Racing workshop as work continues on the super-truck destined to carry Gavin Seager, race driver extraordinary, to the 2007 Pickup Truck Championship and consequential untold fame, fortune, and pretty girls..." Not Sure what Hollie (Gav's fiancee) would have to say about the latter but we're pleased to add some piccies of the new Pickup that is being built for Gav this season.