Racing reports
After spending the majority of a 17-year chunk of his career racing a Renault Clio, it takes a bit of time to get used to the sight of Paul Rivett driving anything other than the French hatchback. But this year Rivett’s had a very different challenge on his hands as he’s been competing in Division 2 of the British Truck Racing Championship.
Having secured an unprecedented fourth Clio crown last season, Rivett decided to move elsewhere for 2019. That ‘elsewhere’ proved to be trucks, as the man dubbed Mr Clio Cup had previously contested a one-off outing back in 2017, driving the truck of his WDE Motorsport team boss Wayne Eason.
“It was always going to be hard to make a decision on what to do,” said Rivett, who competed in Fiestas and stock cars in the USA before entering the Clio Cup in 2001. “Clio Cup has been such a good championship and to find something that can replace that is a hard task. But I think we’ve found it here.
“After racing Wayne’s truck in 2017, it gave me the bug to come truck racing. I grew up watching touring cars and truck racing on TV. Having Tachosys [a tachograph company] as title sponsor, it fits in well. With Wayne having a recruitment company and having raced trucks before it just the seemed the right thing to come and do.”
But taming his 12,000cc MAN TGA truck is quite a different prospect to racing a Clio, although Rivett feels he’s now fully up to speed in his new environment.
“The driving style is completely different,” he said. “You’ve got the gears, left-foot braking and building the boost up – it’s back to old style driving and there’s a lot of finesse with the pedals.
“The truck weighs nearly six tonnes – about five times the weight of a Clio. You have to be very respectful of everything around you, the circuit, the other trucks and even moving around the paddock. When two of these clash you have a massive accident but fortunately it’s a very good bunch of drivers.”
Unsurprisingly, Rivett has soon found himself at the front after battling a few teething issues with the truck in the opening contests. He claimed his first win in the second event at Pembrey, another followed at the Nurburgring before he triumphed twice more at Donington Park last weekend.
It’s not just a truck Rivett’s been racing this year, either. He’s also been sharing the RAW Motorsports Fun Cup entry with Alex Macleod.
And he’s enjoying his racing more than ever.
“This year’s a bit more relaxed and a bit more fun,” added Rivett, who eventually intends to graduate to a Division 1 truck and possibly compete in the FIA European series. “I was running the Clio team and it was getting quite stressful at race weekends.
“I will race anything that has got an engine in it, I’ve raced jet skis and motocross bikes, and it’s nice to do something a little bit different.”