FEATURE COVER STORY
In the Cab
Michael Oliver, who has been watching his dad race since the age of 14 and began racing himself in 2015, built up momentum during the weekend and after claiming a podium in race four he followed his dad home for a family 1-2 in the final race of the meeting, setting up an enticing potential challenge for the rest of the season.
For Oliver, Truck racing is all about race craft and he explains:“ No spectacle in motorsport comes close to a grid of trucks charging into turn one, but you cannot be over-aggressive because any mistake can have big consequences. You cannot just send it up the inside of another [ truck ] and hope it sticks, you have to be calculated and forward plan.
“ We all want to help grow the Championship and do what is best for the sport, and this year, the new regulations should open Division One. It is anyone’ s to win. Last year, I ended up fourth, but felt I had the pace for second, so I will be aiming to put the Oliver name back on the Championship trophy this time!”
In Division Two, last year’ s title winner John Powell has graduated to Division One, so a new champion will be crowned in 2025. Last year’ s runner-up Simon Cole was the early favourite, and he will be joined on the grid by his teenage son, Archie Handy, who claimed countless podium finishes on his debut season last year.
However, it was Jake Evans who took the early Championship lead at Brands Hatch. Having worked with his dad as a team operator up to 2023, he finally pulled together the budget to go racing this season and made a great start, with two wins and several podiums putting him ahead of fellow newcomer Callum Eason.
In the cab, it is all race-focused
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Davies admits he has“ one or two” rather impressive visitors books full of autographs, but it has not all been celebrity adventures. Much of his 35 years have involved hard graft and commitment and he is so entwined with track, that over the years it has turned into a family business, with around 90 per cent of the staff being related.
Davies’ son Daniel is currently the Operations Manager, running the rescue, medical and recovery teams, and also putting in a lot of the new infrastructure; his stepson Andrew looks after the ground works; his wife Tina worked in the office for 30 years; his daughters Emma and Tammy were involved in between their education; and now his granddaughter is there with him, working on the site whenever she can amidst her studies.
The workforce is not the only thing that has grown and evolved since over time. The original circuit was very different to what it is now and Davies recalls:“ When I started, there was nothing here at all. It was just a field with an old fence going around, so the first year we put in a scrutineering bay, then we put the tower up and then the restaurant.
“ I only had a little room – you did not need offices, you did not have computers, you just had a little typewriter – and the first few years were very, very tight financially. The BARC also owned Thruxton, as they do now, and for the first five years, I owed them quite a bit of money, but I changed quite a few things we were doing, and it became more stable.
“ We basically decided to do as much as we could ourselves rather than using contractors because when you are hiring in, it is more expensive, and you also do not know who you are having every other week. We still do that to this day. We brought the ambulances and recovery services inhouse, and we have dozen or so people we call on for marshalling.”
The Circuit now operates with a 50-50 split between private events and race meetings. Alongside the popular British Truck Racing Championship meet – which is one of the biggest crowd draws of the season – the venue hosts a full spectrum of motorsports, from cars to bikes, including Rallies, Rallycross, Supermoto and Motocross.
The team also runs track days for cars, bikes and Rallying, and launched the Welsh Motorsport and Supercar Festival last year, attracting a huge collection of rare and
Graham Holbon
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Revolution- May 2025