BTRA Brands Hatch April 2015

The closed season of the BTRA was full of the usual rumors about who has what new race truck and who will be driving it. By the time of the first event at Brands Hatch many people already knew, I knew that Ryan Smith had one of the Ex Fia trucks as Id put together a sponsorship proposal for his team and I knew that Dave Jenkins had bought the other Hahn truck, along with the A spec race engine package.

Sadly Chris Levett has decided not to race in 2015, the speedy Renault is now in the hands of Stuart Oliver who’s given the truck a make over badging it as a Volvo. The new owner had a mixed weekend or racing and crashing finishing in 3^rd place.

Triple Champion Mat Summerfield was in what looked exactly like his old truck, however its undergone some heavy modifications to its air intake system, suspension and electrical systems.

The two Ex Hahn truck were as expected quickest, but it was Ryan Smith who was the faster of the two, with his truck appearing to handle somewhat better than the MAN in black’s. The usual attempt to get three race trucks around paddock hill bend was tried and this time Smith ended up in the gravel, fortunately with out major damage.  The gravel on paddock hill was to be the place for many damaged trucks over the weekend Stuart Oliver, Ryan Colson, Ryan Smith and a huge crash that saw Andy Lovenbury’s Sisu (Boris) actually fly! Obviously that didn’t end well, and now most of the front end is no longer attached.

B Class was dominated by Steve Powell, who won sprit of the track as well as all of his classes races. New comer Jo Eason had a great weekend gaining the same points as her husband Wayne Eason. The truck that everyone was most pleased to see was Ross Garrett’s being driven by his son Luke, the family had obviously spent considerable time and effort lovingly rebuilding Ross’s racer to an exceptional standard not only does it look immaculate it was one of the fastest in its class. I’m sure we will see Luke winning races very soon.

Mat Summerfield’s weekend panned out well, even after the penalties that other drivers received were miraculously rescinded when they behaved well in the next race. The triple championship winning truck and driver were in joint 2nd place, right up there with the fia trucks!

My Favourite photo of the weekend, Steve Thomas in his newly painted MAN – the hue of the yellow is amazing! It almost glows.