OLIVER GRABS THE EARLY TRUCK LEAD
Winning honours were shared when the 2018 British Truck Racing Championship started at a chaotic and sometimes wild Easter race meeting.
Multiple champion Stuart Oliver grabbed the early points lead with a win and three more podium visits before the final, and there were popular victories for Ryan Smith and David Jenkins.
A smaller than expected entry was boosted by the late addition of four-time champion Mat Summerfield and Smith, the latter the current title holder, but with zero preparation time neither was fully up to speed.
Oliver took the opening Division 1 honours after a duel with Jenkins in a restarted race, with Summerfield and Smith next. Summerfield missed Monday morning’s race after reporting of blurred vision and Richard Collett caused a red flag when he crashed for the second time in less than 24 hours. Jenkins won the restarted race.
The classes combined for wet third and fourth outings, where Smith rewarded the team’s supporters with a brilliantly executed win in the first with Simon Reid and Oliver rounding out the podium. Smith did it again ahead of his recovering team-mate Summerfield in their fourth race, which lacked Jenkins and Reid after they beached and caused another stoppage.
Oliver plunged off at Paddock Hill on the first flying lap of the final, leaving the way clear for a hugely impressive Smith to lead Summerfield home in a fairytale end to a manic week for the Midland team-mates.
Miles Rudman and Ben Power were Legends heat winners on Sunday before Power won the final from 14th on the grid, fending off Jack Parker who arrived at Brands as leading points scorer following the Oulton Park season opener. On Monday, John Mickel and Rudman won the heats and Will Gibson the final, a fitting reward after driving a still bent car repaired after a big impact with the pit wall earlier in the meeting.
Lea Wood won both Pickup Trucks races, making an early break to beat reigning champion Scott Bourne in race one. The second race was a more dramatic affair, Wood benefiting when Bourne and Mark Willis clashed while contesting the lead. Pickups rookie Dale Gent retired when his engine let go, spinning him in an eruption of fire on the top straight.
Malcolm Blackman fought his way to the front to launch his Intermarque title defence in winning style. Lewis Smith provided the main opposition, but after losing narrowly in race one he retired next time after tagging a backmarker.
Five months almost to the day after a massive impact with the pit wall, Rod Birley and his refurbished Escort returned to winning ways. Incidents on a wet and oily track caused a Modified Saloons and Tin Tops stoppage, and Birley made no mistakes in the rerun, beating Steve Rothery’s Renault Clio to the flag. Birley’s happy return didn’t last, though, the Escort stopping in an oily cloud on Cooper Straight in race two, handing the win to novice driver Adrian Bradley in a BMW M3. Rothery, Andy Thompson and Paul Eve enjoyed a mighty battle for third.
First blood in the Kumho BMW Championship went to Colin Wells, who never looked like being overhauled on Sunday. He had to work much harder on Monday after starting on slicks on a damp but drying track. A long way back early on, he didn’t overhaul the wet shod Darren Fielding for the lead until lap 19 of 21.