One week after the FIA ETRC round in Most, Czech Republic, Terry Gibbon from Brough driving the T Sport Racing MAN participated in the 6th round of this year´s British Truck Racing Championship back in the UK.
Held at Snetterton it was an important event for the team as their partners EMS and FP&S Truck and Trailer Parts – in cooperation with PE Automotive – once again invited their local customers to join them for the weekend.
The event at Snetterton is one of the smaller ones, albeit an attractive one for people to come along as spectators are given a fantastic view onto the track allowing them to follow the race action closely!
Without a test or warm-up session, they were called out onto the track to qualify for the first race! The team were quite confident since Terry is pretty familiar with the circuit and more than pleased when they saw the lap times achieved.
They put Terry into the middle field of the Division 1 class. As there was only one race scheduled for Saturday, they had plenty of time to set up the truck, to talk to their partners and their customers and to give them a technical tour around the race truck. It’s something they usually try to offer their guests once a day.
Unfortunately, the timetable is often very tight to do so. It was a nice race but pretty uneventful except for a 360-degree spin of one of the trucks following Terry. The T Sport truck started in 6th position and finished in the same place.
After a good night service, the second race day soon started with a Division 1 race.
Due to the reversed grid, Terry started in the front group and was hoping for a good result.
Unfortunately he got involved in an incident right after the start that saw him and two other competitors spin off the track. Once all others had passed, these three trucks rejoined and continued the race – but the good position was lost. Although the result was probably not the best one, there was yet another chance for them to get to the front due to the reversed grid!
In fact, it worked out even better than imagined. Terry had a brilliant start and while the others were fighting behind him, he managed to build up a gap of more than 8 seconds towards the driver in 2nd position. Towards the end, current championship leader Ryan Smith and Stuart Oliver, 10 times British champion, started chasing Terry.
With the huge gap Terry had built up earlier, however, there was no way to catch up anymore. What a great victory and what an exciting moment! Once Terry crossed the finish line, both the team and their guests rushed to the podium to congratulate him for his great victory!
The last race was a combined Division 1 and 2 race in which saw Terry in the middle of the pack.
There was plenty of action going on, but Terry managed to stay out of trouble and kept fighting for a good result – he finally finished 6th, a position the team were more than happy with.
At the end of the day they headed back to the workshop where they will prepare both truck and trailer for the last couple of races in the European championship.
Photo by David Holland
