Round One of the 2018 British Truck Racing Championship took place over the Easter weekend around the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit, with Brough’s Terry Gibbon competing in Class A for T Sport Racing in the MAN TGS.
The opening round of the British Truck Racing Championship was scheduled for Easter Sunday 1st and Easter Monday 2nd of April. Accordingly, it was Sunday morning when Terry first went out onto the track with his number 37 race truck.
Without any test sessions, the trucks were called straight into qualifying. Amongst a total of 11 Class A drivers, Terry managed to stay in the middle of the field – thus securing a good 6th starting position on the grid for the first race of the season.
The one and only race scheduled for the Sunday went very well for Terry until the truck of one of his competitors spun off the track. As a result, the race was restarted. Shortly after, Terry also slid off the track. Luckily he was able to rejoin the race. In the end, he finished in 8th position.
The first race on Monday was the highlight of the weekend. It increased the pulse of both Terry and his team members! After a fantastic start, Terry was in the lead throughout the first half of the race, until the race was red flagged and restarted once again – because of a heavy crash. At the restart, Terry had some extremely strong competitors charging behind him: Dave Jenkins, current British double champion Ryan Smith and 10x British champion Stuart Oliver. While Ryan Smith and Dave Jenkins overtook the T Sport Racing truck right at the start, Terry fought hard to keep Stuart Oliver behind him.
And he prevailed successfully thus crossing the finish line in 3rd place. Unfortunately, however, he was penalised with a 5 second penalty later on.
The last race of the weekend saw class A and B trucks race together. As the race got underway, heavy rain set in. Considering these adverse weather conditions, Terry knew it wouldn´t be easy for him to keep the chasing pack behind him. After seeing many other competitors crash heavily, however, he didn’t want to risk damaging his truck either. And yet, he aimed on being among the points ranking drivers. Terry managed to do so fairly well: he finished the final race in 7th position.
We are all really pleased with the result of the first race weekend: the truck is running well, Terry put a good show on and they received a lot of very positive feedback through social media!
Terry and T Sport will be in action again on the 21st-22nd April at Pembrey in Wales.
Report: Melanie Derflinger – T Sport Racing
Pictures: David Holland
