| TOP NEWS :: Truck Racing Pembrey April 2006 :: |
Easter weekend saw a packed grid of 18 race trucks for the first 3 rounds of the Truck Racing Championship at Pembrey in South Wales where the weather was for once kind – relatively warm and a few sunny spells.
Interest in truck racing is certainly on the up with the best Saturday crowd for a long time and Sunday was even more popular. The Circuit Manager commented it ‘was the first time he had seen queues of cars waiting to leave on Sunday’
After the winter break it was an opportunity to test the vehicles under race conditions.
The need to run all race trucks on one make of tyre was solved by using existing stocks of Continental race tyres for the event. However, the need for all trucks to have some form of smoke filters fitted to meet German environmental standards faces many teams.
Unfortunately Gary George in his newly prepared Foden suffered a seized engine before qualifying. A faulty gear selector troubled Steve Horne’s ERF forcing him to sit the Saturday out until a replacement arrived.
Last year’s Championship winner Ross Garrett in the Cat engined Foden clocked up the fastest lap time of 1:14:144 showing his dominance and achieved straight wins in all races together with fastest laps.
Chris Levett made his debut at the wheel of the Championship winning Atkins Racing MAN TGA finishing in top 3 positions. Many will be watching out for this youngster as he gains racing experience. It was good to see the Atkins camp back in action on British soil.
Last year’s Championship runner up Dave Jenkins, driving the bonneted SISU SL250, drove well with two second place finishes. Truck Race fans were also thrilled to see another of these rarely seen trucks driven by Mat Summerfield. Although his truck had just been completed Mat managed a credible couple of fourth places.
Six times Champion Stuart Oliver returning in his MAN had a fourth place result but will have some work to do on the truck to get it back to its winning form.
Steve Horne re-joined the racing on Sunday and despite starting at the back of the pit lane, battled his way up to a 5th place finish.
Class B drivers welcomed Ian Gypps in the ex-Gary George Foden. Ian had a good consistent first outing. Graham Powell in his newly acquired ex-Andy Hardy Ford Cargo started in Class B racing with a fourth and a second place.
Dave Ball’s consistent performance in the Volvo FL10 left him sharing the points lead in Class B with Roger Brookfield’s ERF and Terry Gibbon’s Volvo White. Terry would have gained maximum class points if it were not for an intercooler pipe blowing off in the second race causing him to retire.
Surprise entrant Steve Thomson who raced a few years back finished class second in the last race in his 20-year-old Scammell S26 after colliding with Max Dawson’s Seddon Atkinson and forcing Max out of the race. Earlier, Max’s truck had suffered from a blown intercooler pipe in the first race but had shown winning form in the second race,
With more racers expected to join the field, this year is on course for the biggest season ever.
© Chris Jones – British Truck Racing Association.
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
