For many, our visit to sunny Pembrey in Wales would have been a perfect weekend for racing trucks around the beautiful circuit. The weather was more reminiscent of a glorious July than mid October, with barely a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately though, ‘our John’ favours the wet and damper conditions more akin to a British track at the tail end of a typical season and stats do show that John finds more glory in circuits soaked in rain water than those basked in sunshine.

Nevertheless, we loved our trip to Wales.

On the Saturday, and after a couple of red flags affecting momentum, John managed to get half a dozen laps in and finished in 5th position. For Race one, and despite the beautiful sunshine detested so much by JP, he made up a place in the first race and finished 4th.

Race 2 was pretty uneventful and saw JP hold position and finish where he started, in 4th.

On the Sunday, Race 3 had John start 2nd on grid and he finished 1st with a truly brilliant drive (and yet, no rain!), and he led all the way with Craig Reid really pushing hard in the final stages, but JP wasn’t in the mood for giving up that easily, and he managed to hold on for the win. The race was unfortunately red flagged in the final few minutes, but we, and JP, believe he still would have held onto it in the final lap. He had ‘that look’ in his eyes.

Race 4 came, and JP started at the back of the grid and finished 3rd. Did we mention that John likes Pembrey?

Race 5, and JP started in 3rd but lost a position after a minor knock and came to finish 4th.

Overall, we had a great weekend, and most importantly there were no penalties or disqualifications, no breakdowns, the truck is on (top) form and the new speed limiter is spot on.

JP didn’t come away totally unscathed though, as whilst the mechanics all held up nicely, there was a bit of panel damage that we’ll need to tidy up in time for our home track visit at Brands Hatch.