Race Report: Donington 20/21 August 2022
British Truck Racing Championship Headlines,
‘Convoy in the Park’; Donington 2022.
This weekend just gone, John and his able crew loaded the truck…onto another truck, and headed North to the legendary Donington race track.
There was nothing notable to comment on for qualifying on Saturday, other than John qualifying in a respectable 4th.
For that first race of the weekend, you could almost sense the glee in John as he powered into 2nd spot, literally just past the first bend. His jubilation didn’t last long though as he was nudged, and spun from behind resulting in the truck losing a lot of it’s front panels. John regained position in 8th, where alas, he remained until the finish of this turbulent race.
Race 2 was better, but with mixed fortunes. After qualifying 3rd for this one, John actually finished as runner up after a hard fought track battle, but after passing the finishing line, the truck, which has worked so hard for this race, lost all power and had to be recovered back to the paddock.
The mystery soon became apparent, in so much that the damage from Race 1 turned out to be far more than just superficial as first thought. So, a long night for the team resulted in a full engine rebuild so John could once again get out on track for Race 3, on the Sunday.
This time though, the truck gods were looking down on John. Perhaps because of the lack of sleep within the team, and a ‘never surrender’ attitude by John, he took Pole and didn’t look back, winning this race with confidence and ease. Maybe our luck had changed as Saturday changed into Sunday?
But as is often the case with racing, Race 4 loomed and was to bite the team once again. Continuing overheating issues saw John starting at the back of the pack and he limped home, again in 8th.
Race 5 wasn’t so different except he finished 5th after a epic battle with 4 other drivers. The truck was still overheating though and really summed up the weekend for the team, despite their excellent and hard working endeavours.
We’d like to thank the team for their persistence and dedication in what was a hard weekend for all, but we’d also like to thank ‘Wesley’ from Crouch Recovery who stayed with the team on Saturday night to help with the removal, and refit of the engine top end. We’ll repay you with teas and coffees and maybe a bun or two next season.