Brands Hatch - 24/04/12
What a weekend, on Friday the relssert racing team headed down to Brands Hatch for Rounds 4 & 5 of the 2012 Pickup Truck Racing Championship. Before qualification we started the engine to warm the truck up however it was clear there was a problem with black smoke coming from the exhaust pipe. Neil looked at the engine oil levels and found it was extremely low. After a look round the engine we then found the real problem - the throttle body controller tick over on the injection kit had moved from its original position causing the engine to under rev. We would like to thank Nic Grindrod andteam #22 for helping us set it back to the correct position because without them we probably wouldn’t have been able to race.
When we finally got out to qualify, Q1 went great putting Neil on Pole for Race 1. The session was prematurely cut short however when Charlie Weaver #20 rolled his truck at druids, luckily he was ok. As Q2 was about to get underway Neil drove down the pit lane but the truck lost all its revs so the team pushed him back to the garage and set the tick over again. Neil got back out and qualified 12th.
After an eventful Saturday, Sunday morning saw race 1 with Neil on Pole next to Dave Briggs #2, as the race got to a flying start Dave managed to cut across going down paddock hill but Neil continued to fight as the race continued battling with the other drivers, it was a great race and after a long battle with Paul Poulter Neil came 10th.
Race 2 took place in the afternoon with dark grey cloudy looming in the sky. Neil started on row 5 of the grid next to Paul Poulter #74, he got to a fantastic start but the race was quickly red flagged when Carl Boardley #41, Paul Tompkins #12 and David O’Regan #8 collided together down the straight putting Boardley in the Pit Wall. As the accident was being cleared the rain started to fall eventually coming down very heavy. The race was declared wet and Neil came into the pits to have his tyres charged. Soon he was ready for the restart. The rain continued to pour as the race recommenced, Neil battling with the other drivers, just 2 laps before the chequered flag Neil and Paul Poulter #74 were racing for 7th position, as they leaned on one another around Surtees Corner, they came together and ended up spinning. Neil was soon back on it and despite the endless rain came 10th.
After the weekend Neil has now moved up from 10th to 7th in the Championship. Please see our race standings for thefull table, our media page has now also been updated with photos and on board footage from the weekend.
Our next meeting would have been at Rockingham Motor Speedway on the 20th May, however we will be racing in the European NASCAR at Brands Hatch (DTM Meeting) instead. More details will be released soon.