Team Oliver Racing at Pembrey
STORM CALLUM: ALSO PARTICIPATES AT PEMBREY by Melanie Derflinger: TEAM OLIVER RACING
On 13th/14th October TEAM OLIVER RACING made the long journey from the team’s home, to the Pembrey race circuit in the South West corner of Wales. As all the teams arrived to set up for the weekend the weather forecasters predictions became true, with Storm Callum delivering very high winds and constant heavy rain, this meant very little could be done by the teams to prepare for the weekend ahead.
On Saturday morning it soon become apparent due to the amount of standing water on and around the circuit the race programme would be greatly affected. With the organisers struggling with the situation eventually in the early afternoon the trucks were allowed out on the circuit to qualify for race one.
The first race of the weekend then took place late in the day, starting for apparent safety reasons with all the trucks in-line of stern and with no overtaking allowed until after the trucks had gone around the Hatchets Hairpin. Unfortunately, this idea was made earlier in the day and by the time of the race the conditions had greatly improved therefore the idea turned out not to be a recipe for good close racing. In the race Stuart finished in fifth place and Martin in seventh.
On the Sunday morning the rain had stopped, so the second truck race of the weekend started as planned, this time in the normal side by side, rolling start way. Stuart and Martin both had good starts, followed by plenty of close racing action. Stuart crossed the finish line in second place and Martin in seventh. Post-race the officials decided to award Stuart the only driver penalty of the weekend, giving him a preposterous ten second penalty for an overtake manoeuvres they deemed unsafe.
The second race of the day and by this time the sun was out, Stuart and Martin both again made very good starts. Stuart battled hard to work through the pack ahead and finishing again in second place, Martin`s truck was hit hard and pushed off track early in the race recovered well to finish in seventh place.
The final truck race of the weekend got underway in the late afternoon with the sun still shinning, both TEAM OLIVER drivers without surprise got off to another great race start, by mid-race Stuart was up into third and Martin up into sixth, both drivers worked hard throughout, unfortunately Martin’s truck experienced more heavy contact on a number of occasions, at the chequered flag Stuart had to settle for a third and Martin for a well-deserved sixth place.
In summary over the weekend both drivers managed to secure a good haul of championship points, although it was no secret that the mood of the team was somewhat deflated by the deplorable and inconsistent decisions of the race organisers and officials.
The team now have a few weeks to prepare for the final BTRC meeting of the year, held on 3rd 4th November at Britain’s best loved MSV owned Brands Hatch circuit, were the fireworks are sure to not to be the only things going bang.
