THE UNUSUAL SWITCH FROM RALLYING TO TRUCKS
Jamieandersonhasmadeawinningswapfromrallyingtotruckracingthisyear.byjackbenyon Jamieandersonhasmadeawinningswapfromrallyingtotruckracingthisyear.by Jackbenyon
It is very easy to dislike those people who are good at everything. Jamie Anderson is one of those, at least when it comes to anything with a wheel. Having spent over 10 years rallying, starting in the humble Peugeot 205 Challenge, he gradually worked up to winning BTRDA events in a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05, winning the Woodpecker Rally in 2015 and the Severn Valley in 2016 to cap his achievements.
Not content with his rallying, it was time for a change for Anderson, and for 2018 he switched full-time to truck racing in Britain and Europe, taking two wins and 12 podiums in the British Truck Racing Championship.
It was a more natural transition than probably appears obvious, with Anderson running an eponymous commercials business, offering MOTS, servicing and diagnostics on trucks in the day job.
“As a kid I used to go and watch truck racing, and the guys that work here always said ‘we need to have a go at truck racing, stop the rallying’, because our business is framed around commercials,” Anderson explains.
“I did BRC [British Rally Championship, in 2016-’17] and it didn’t quite feel right, there was a lot of time away from work and I wasn’t really getting the enjoyment out of it that I should have been.”
A company called Diagraph is commonplace in truck racing and works with Anderson’s business regularly. Its bosses were keen to get Anderson out and racing and invited him to test Dave Jenkins’s truck in a demo at Rockingham. Despite Jenkins also doing rallies, the pair had never crossed paths.
Anderson did the Pembrey round of the championship and scored a podium on his debut weekend, having never seen the track before.
Indeed, Anderson hadn’t been involved in motorsport until the mid-2000s and had never driven on a circuit before.
Despite being at a massive disadvantage, not knowing the tracks, it’s been a brilliantly successful year.
“I’d never touched a track in my life. Talk to me about Kielder Forest and it’s fine, but not somewhere like Pembrey or Brands Hatch,” he says. “I’ve just rocked up every week, got my push-bike out and cycled the tracks. That’s it. Nothing prior to that to try and get my head around them. I cycle it everyday I am there just to get myself familiarised.
“I’ve had to drop being flamboyant! You can get away with it on gravel but you have to be a lot more neat and tidy in circuit racing.
“The one thing I have struggled with is reference points because in rallying you wouldn’t normally use a reference point for braking or turning the car in, it’s done on natural feeling. Even now at the end of the year, I’m still trying to get my head around reference points. That’s been the biggest difference, how strict you have to be.
“In rallying there’s a lot of balls involved, on the circuit your driving style has to change dramatically to be more precise.”
Wins at Donington in July and Brands in November – where he also scored fastest lap – were particular highlights in a fantastic debut year.
While he has confirmed that he wants to return to rallying, being alone in the cockpit and tracking his prey on a circuit has excited the Leicester driver.
“The experience of winning is the same, but the thing I have enjoyed is the on-track action,” he adds. “Being able to trade paint with people, having a target.
“I have struggled with qualifying, because of the reference points. When I get in a race I seem to come up trumps, make a lot of manoeuvres and do things people have never seen.
“With rallying you’re so set and determined to listen to the pacenotes, with the race you’ve got your bit between your teeth and you have a target. With rallying you’re set against the clock. In racing, you have live target practice.”
As well as competing in Britain, Anderson – not content with the massive change to circuit racing – decided doing the European Championship ( see sidebar) was a good idea as well.
“It’s like going from the Woodpecker compared to Ypres,” says Anderson, comparing a smaller clubman event to a big international rally like Ypres in Belgium.
“It’s phenomenal. We were in Germany at the Nurburgring and there was 120,000 spectators. It’s the second largest attended motorsport in Europe after F1. In Europe it’s got a very high standing, the competition is a lot higher. The quality and competition is a lot cleaner.
“It can be a damage-festival in the UK. You have to take each one in your stride, adapt to it and learn from it.” And that he has done. If the debut year is anything to go by – third in the British championship – then next year holds much fruit.
The calendar is likely to involve a few one-off British events and a “full attack” in the European championship, with development work being done on his MAN truck over the winter.
However, he promises he will never turn his back on rallying. Anderson will have a busy calendar next year. ■