| TOP NEWS :: Santa Pod Raceway :: |
Recently, twelve of the BTRA teams had a weekend away together at the Santa Pod Raceway. They had been invited along to the UK Truck Show so that visitors could get a close look at race trucks and chat to the teams about the thrills of truck racing.
The ‘fun’ part of the event for the drivers – and their supporting crews and friends – was the competition element in which the trucks took to the drag strip in pairs to see just how the race trucks would perform on the ‘sticky’ surface. In contrast to procedure at a normal race circuit where the drivers do a warm-up lap, in this situation the trucks had to move off from a standing start which had an interesting effect on the tyres as the drivers revved up (not before a few trucks thrilled the crowds with some drag strip burn-outs) and waited for the lights to go green.
Then it was foot down on the accelerator to get the speed up and complete the quarter mile course in the fastest possible time. This was achieved on the Saturday by Dave Jenkins in the SISU and by Stuart Oliver in the MAN on the Sunday. The best speed reached over the weekend was clocked by Stuart whose MAN peaked at 100.04 m.p.h.
As was perhaps to be expected it was the more powerful Class A trucks which
vied for places in the finals, although Class B driver Dave Ball’s Seddon Atkinson achieved a very good time before suffering injector problems.
Friendly rivalry was in full swing as the competition progressed and it was a very happy Dave Jenkins in the SISU who took the winner’s trophy on day one with Stuart Oliver in the MAN a close second. However, on day two the positions were reversed and it was Stuart who was ahead of Dave when the finishing times were announced. So it could be said that the weekend ended in a draw – one all! Mat Summerfield in the other SISU lifted the third place trophy on day one whilst Steve Horne in the ERF took third place on day two.
All the drivers said how much they had enjoyed the buzz of the weekend and the opportunity to give the trucks a different type of workout. Although the truck racers were no match for the jet powered dragsters that achieved over 250 mph, if Terry Cox will alter the regulations there may be some BTRA teams on the look out for second hand jet engines! For the team mechanics too, the event was far more relaxing than usual with no emergency repairs to do between outings!
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