Britain’s Big Rigs returned to Brands Hatch as the British Truck Racing Championship (BTRC) “Century of Power” season officially gets underway. With four races across an action packed weekend, it would end up being glory for several different drivers.
Qualifying
In Divison One, Craig Reid would take pole position with a staggering 58.636 on his return to the series, 0.291s ahead of second place John Bowler. Meanwhile in Division Two Bradley’s Harvey would set a benchmark of 1.01.324.
Race 1
Reid would convert his pole into a win as he created a sizable gap from the rest of the pack almost straight away, with no one seemingly being able to catch him he would cruise to take the chequered flag. John Bowler and Michael Oliver completed the podium places whilst Jake Evans, defending his Division Two title, would take his first win of the weekend.
Race 2
Ryan Smith would open his championship defence with a win in the second race with a 3.9s gap to Stuart Oliver, whilst John Powell took the Division Two race win.
Race 3
Ten-time champ Stuart Oliver would open sunday with his first win of the weekend whilst Ryan Smith would follow closely behind with the gap only 0.272 seconds.
Evans would take the spoils again in Division Two to kickstart his mega Easter Sunday.
Race 4
A couple hours later it would be Oliver again taking the top step of the podium, this time it would following a lengthy VSC and red flag due to debris on track.
Once again in Division Two, it would be Evans dominating the field taking two wins out of two races during the day.
Race 5
The weekend’s final race would see Richard Collett start on pole, thanks to a reverse grid. Putting his over thirty years of experience to the test, Collett would stay in front for the entire race. Oliver and Smith were locked in a tense battle behind him and completed the podium places.
Evans completed his Easter Sunday Hatrick with yet another win putting a rather healthy margin between him and the rest of the division.
A blockbuster weekend over which featured spoils being shared in Division 1, the championship is looking to be closely contended right until the final rounds. Division 2 is also shaping up to be a one horse race if Jake Evans can carry on his momentum.
The British Truck Racing Championship returns to Thruxton on May 16th and 17th with another four rounds of Big Rigs Action.
