Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/698304
DIVERSIONS 46 | Overdrive | July 2016 Courtesy of Todd Campbell Inside the way-back machine It was "the fi rst and last fi lm I ever made," says London-based Andy Harris, known in Great Britain for his expertise on motorhomes. He's talking about his documentary of what was then the third annual Trucker Cham- pionship drag races, started in Cali- fornia where Overdrive founder Mike Parkhurst was based in the late 1970s. Harris hit Overdrive's Facebook page in May with a YouTube video converted from the fi lm, itself converted to VHS at some point in the 1980s. What was a lifelong London resi- dent doing fi lming at the event? "I was doing a lot of traveling in America," says Harris. "Hitchhiking, I got quite a few lifts in trucks. I was very interested in truck stops, and I thought the whole trucking culture was very interesting. Even now, I've got a whole load of trucking books and music – Red So- vine and loads of people like that." He'd worked for U.K.-based truck- ing magazines and loved the culture so much that he opened a store called Trucker's Paradise in central London 35 years ago. "People came, and it became quite famous" regionally, he says. "I thought it would be great to make a fi lm about [U.S.] trucking," he says. Watch the fi lm by searching "way-back machine" at OverdriveOnline.com. Old film highlights Overdrive diesel drags Scan the QR to view Andy Harris' never-before-released film from Overdrive's late-'70s diesel drags in Englishtown, N.J. Pictured here are Overdrive founder Mike Parkhurst and 'Just Nancy,' one of many participating owner-operators interviewed by Harris in the film. Todd Campbell (center) and Kevin Young (right) of Campbell's Knox Trans- portation of Knoxville, Tenn., have been doing some time-traveling. They dressed up 1970s-style to complement Campbell's Icy Red 1995 Freightliner cabover (retrofi tted with '79 body panels and the interior guts of an '81) and Young's trusty yellow 1981 Freightliner with a Double "O" '92 Detroit Diesel. Not only were the guys driving vintage trucks on their Back in Time 2016 tour, they acquired era-appropriate ward- robes and vowed to seek out old-style stops and cafes on their way west. They hit two-lanes all the way to the American Truck Historical Society's national convention, held May 26-28 in Salem, Ore. The commitment level to authenticity was high enough to warrant Camp- bell growing pork-chop sideburns. In the picture here, Campbell and Young had caught up with owner-op- erator Austin Yoder (left) in Missouri with his 1980 International Transtar, powered by a 290 Cum- mins. "He uses it quite a bit to haul agricultural commodities around Missouri," Campbell says. "It's a work in progress, but she is in fi ne shape for a great working classic. It's good to see the young- er generation interested in the trucks of yesteryear." Campbell hopes the tour might inspire a sense of camaraderie he sees missing among drivers today. Find views from the tour by searching "Back in Time Tour" at Overdrive- Online.com. Two-lanes, old cafes and sideburns BY WENDY PARKER AND TODD DILLS For the Back in Time Tour 2016, Todd Campbell (center) and Kevin Young (right) immersed themselves in trucking's yesteryear en route to the American Truck Historical Society's national convention in Oregon. They're joined here by Austin Yoder (left) in Missouri.