The opening rounds of the 2009 Delphi British Truck Racing Championship took place in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd at a cold but dry Brands Hatch on Sunday (March 29) – and brought ‘double’ wins for both David Ball and Stuart Oliver.
The heavyweight formula of truck racing appears to be riding out the economic storm well with an excellent entry of 21 trucks – including two complete ‘Rookies’ (newcomers).
But it was the experienced 8 times British Champion Stuart Oliver who dominated proceeds in Class ‘A’ – the Hexham haulier powering his MAN TG-S to comfortable victories in both outings of the weekend.
But while Oliver scored a pair of untroubled wins the battle for the other podium places was extremely fierce in both races. Race one saw Chris Levett (Birds MAN) successfully fending off the hard-charging David Jenkins (MAN) to claim the runner-up spot – with Richard Collett, Mat Summerfield and Terry Gibbon making it an MAN clean-sweep of the top six places.
The second Class ‘A’ race saw Oliver out in front again – the threat from his main challenger being eliminated as Levett was pushed wide on the exit of the first turn by fast-starting Jenkins. That left Summerfield in second place – which he succeeded in retaining to the chequered flag despite constant challenges from Jenkins. Another duel was keeping the crowd entertained for many laps as the recovering Levett closed in on fourth placed Collett – but failed to find a way through before pitting with technical troubles. That allowed local man Graham Powell (ERF) to move up to fifth ahead of Carl Brookfield (ERF).
CLASS ‘B’ – BALL IS BACK!
Green, mean…and clean! David Ball’s extensive winter rebuild of his lurid green Seddon Atkinson certainly paid dividends as he blasted to a double win on this opening weekend.
Last season Ball was plagued with reliability problems and also fell foul of the smoke judges on a few occasions. But at Brands Hatch this year the truck proved fast, reliable – and very clean running (as were all his rivals).
But David had to work hard for his winners trophies; in the first race it was reigning Class ‘B’ Champion Cees Zandbergen who made the early running is his Scania. But Ball slowly reeled in the Dutch driver – and to the delight of the crowds – pulled off a smart passing move to go ahead mid-race, finally pulling clear to win by 2.59 seconds.
Garry George (Foden) looked threatening but finally had to settle for the final podium spot – ahead of the much-improved Andy Lovenberry (Sisu). Elton Boocock failed to find the speed he had expected from his smart Seddon Atki – and collected some paintwork from both Lovenberry and Ben Horne as he struggled home to finish fifth.
The final race of the weekend brought the Class ‘B’ boys out again for another tough battle. Some frantic mid-field fights saw both Lovenberry and Boocock sidelined – and after a red flag the restarted race was a quick four-lap sprint.
Ball led from the green light to the chequered flag – but Zandbergen was on his tail, crossing the line just 0.799 secs behind with George again taking third.
Steven Powell made good progress – after 7th in the first race he brought his Ford Cargo home to a fine fourth. Adam Atkins (White) came in 5th – just holding off Ben Horne by 0.138s. But Horne had done well; he’d taken the re-start from the pit lane (after replacing a punctured tyre) and had made up five places in four laps!
Next rounds of the Delphi British Truck Racing Championship will be held at Pembrey Circuit, near Llanelli, South Wales – on April 18/19.