FEATURE
“ There has always been lots of overtaking and plenty of action anyway, particularly if a leading truck has had a bad qualifying or during the reverse-grid races, where they have to fight their way through the field. That’ s where Ryan has always proved his abilities – and last year he still managed to win some races when he started at the back of the field.
“ It should hopefully mix the results up a little bit more than in the past, but in a wet meeting, trucks with less power have actually won races because they do not get the wheel spin and that can benefit them. So, it could actually prove to be an advantage in some cases. It’ s going to be interesting to see what happens.”
On the evidence of the first round at Brands Hatch, the restrictors did their job as the field was much tighter than in previous years. The top three in qualifying was covered by just three tenths of a second but it was still no surprise to see Smith and Oliver share the victory spoils, underlining their class and experience and laying down a marker to their rivals.
The third race will already go down in history as an all-time classic, with the top-six covered by a little over two seconds. In a grandstand finish, Smith battled back from an early race incident to pass Tom O’ Rourke for second on the final lap at Druids and then chase down Martin Gibson, diving down the inside at Clearways to claim the win.
Graham Holbon
“ We have had so many great drivers here and met so many great people – and a lot of the time most people would never know they were here,” he smiles.“ We still do a lot of work with McLaren and the historic side, and the Senna cars of that era are quite often back down here, which is just wonderful to see.
“ Virtually every F1 champion has been here either before or during their career. John Surtees was a lovely man. He was always quite frugal. He used to book the circuit and hire the car himself, to make sure nobody was taking a cut … He won his first race in bikes at Aberdare Park in the 1950s when my dad was on the grid so that was interesting to discuss.
“ We did a lot with Nigel Mansell for a couple of years when he went into GP Legends – although we never had him when he was in F1 because I think he always thought somebody else should do that … He also came here when his boys were getting into racing, and we did a lot of running with them too.
“ When Michael Schumacher signed for Jordan, there was a PR event at Silverstone but then they came here for first test in the 7-Up car. He also tested here with Benetton and when Kimi Räikkönen jumped from Formula Renault into F1 he was with us two days a week every other week. He was called back to Finland to do national service, but I think he did that in Wales, belting around in an F3 car.
“ Lando Norris was here with his brother when he was still karting and his brother was testing a Ginetta, but by the end of the day he was driving me crazy because he had a golf buggy, and he was bored out of his mind flying around the paddock … He eventually jumped in the car, and you could see even back then that he was very talented.”
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The podiums at Round One, Brands Hatch, had a mix of new and familiar faces
The new lighting panels bring Pembrey in line with other UK race circuits
The trucks line up ready for Race 3
Revolution- May 2025
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