All of the British teams arrived in Charade on the Thursday after picking their trucks up from a nearby parking area where they were curtsey of American Truck’s Yvan Guillard, only to be greeted by hot steamy weather and then a thunderstorm which hampered some of the teams efforts to do repairs on damage sustained on their trucks at Nogaro a couple of weeks previous. Roger Brookfield had managed to replace his engine after a 100mph seize up which caused the conrod to ventilate the cylinder block of his M11 Cummins. Adam Atkins had made a great repair to his truck after his spectacular series of rolls after the first round at Ales but unfortunately was absent from Nogaro due to a family bereavement, our sympathies to the family.
This was a new circuit for four of the drivers so a couple of them took the opportunity to test the pit bikes around the hilly twisty circuit looking closely at the concrete walls which lined most of the track edges.
The Friday morning quietness was broken nice and early by the roar of Richard Collett’s compressor after he and Garth had replaced some gears in his gearbox over night. All the teams got through scrutenineering and then went out for the first practice. As always smoke is high on the agenda and a number of drivers received the dreaded black flag. Once again Roger Brookfield worried his mechanics to death as his DAF shuddered to a halt on the cool down lap of the second practice, they pulled out the replacement second engine in anticipation of another sleepless night but thankfully it was discovered that it was just the fuel tank had run dry of diesel!
Saturday morning’s practice session went well for everyone. The first qualifying session was headed by Richard (Ricky Bobby to his friend’s) Collett followed by Graham Powell, Stephen Powell, Roger Brookfield, Carl Brookfield and Adam Atkins. As the heat of the day increased the times for the second qualifying session decreased as nearly everyone on the grid went slower. As the pregrid formed for the first race the rain started to fall, this made the first lap rather interesting!! From the start Ricky Bobby got the jump on Frank Conti in his Volvo and moved up to finish 6th. Graham Powell moved up two places and drove a solid race to finish 8th. Stephen Powell and Roger Brookfield crossed the line in 14th and 15th. Adam Atkins had to endure the race without a wiper which in a wet race is an amazing feet of bravery. Carl Brookfield had to retire with a rear axle that had broken free.
Sunday morning’s practice started early at 9.15 some of the British Team’s decided not to go out and preserve their tyres. Roger and Carl Brookfield braved the damp track as the rain came down again. Yet again Carl’s ERF decided to break something different on the rear axle letting it go free again so he retired again after 4 laps.
The second race saw top Brit Richard Collett loose his water cooling to his brakes this resulted in a trip into the gravel trap on the fastest downhill section of the track. This made Graham Powell top Brit finishing 8th closely followed by his brother Stephen in 10th, Roger Brookfield 14th, Adam Atkins 15th and a lonely Carl Brookfield in 16th who was preserving his rear axle.
The Grand Final saw all the drivers presented to the crowd with their helmets off with the commentator introducing all the drivers. After this the proceedings got back to racing ready for the 11 laps around the hilly circuit. As the race started Richard Collett soon over took Graham Powell to put him into 7th place, but Graham said “he pulled over to let Richard through”. This put Graham into 8th place in front of Jennifer Janiec in her MAN. The next couple of battling Brits of Stephen Powell and Roger Brookfield who have a season long battle of place swapping. Roger who was suffering a lack of boost pressure all day had fixed the problem and eventually overtook Stephen after he made a small mistake to finish 11th and 12th respectively. An improving Adam Atkins finished 13th holding a steady gap over the charging Volvo of Italian Gino Digiannantonio. Carl Brookfield managed to come home in 15th keeping the rear axle of his ERF in one piece.