All photos and story by JONATHAN REEVES
Copyright {www.truckrace.eu}

BRITS ABROAD

The annual visit to Nurburgring always producing some thrilling racing and for both drivers and spectators is a highlight of the European season.

Jonathan Reeves reports from Germany that the 2010 ADAC Truck Grand Prix once again turned up plenty of thrills and spills – and some surprise results for some of the smaller teams competing in the two Mittelrhein Cup races (which count towards the Delphi British Championship).

No-one could touch on-form Chris Levett on Saturday; he’d already won the opening FIA European Championship race – and the Bird’s MAN was soon powering away from the pack in the first of the Mittelrhein Cup races.

Most of the 202,000 German fans had their eyes trained on the three German ‘guest’ drivers – Gerd Korber, Hans Stuck and Heinz-Werner Lenz – but it was the Brits who stole the show with Levett taking victory ahead of Staurt Oliver. Korber delighted the Iveco importers by landing an impressive third place. Of course Levett and Oliver took 1^st and 2^nd respectively in the BTRA rankings – with Mat Summerfield collecting the 3^rd of the British Championship trophies.

In Class ‘B’ it was Graham Powell who took the honours on Saturday with Andy Lovenberry taking the runner-up spot ahead of Steven Powell.

Sunday’s Mittelrhein race brought another comfortable victory for Levett – with Korber in a surprise second place but along way back. But the real action was the tremendous scrap for 3^nd place. Oliver had been pushed out on the first turn and had to charge from the back of the field to get back into contention for a place on the podium. He quickly sliced through the pack… until he caught up with Richard Collett, who was clearly not giving up his place without a fight. The pair circulated in very close company for several laps – until they got tangled up with the backmarkers – and Stuart managed to slip in front.

So that gave us a BTRA podium for Class ‘A’ with Levett joined by Oliver and Collett.

Class ‘B’ featured some competitive racing as always – but some early clashes plus a number of mechanical troubles took their toll and the field was a bit depleted by the finish. Victory on Sunday went to Andy Lovenberry in the Sisu while a well-deserved runner-up spot fell to Trevor Martin (ERF) with “Mr Sideways” Brain Burt bringing his White home third.

Next stop: Thruxton on August 7/8 – followed by Pembrey a week later!