TRUCK RACING CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE TITLE
Throttles open, elbows out and a fast-moving pack of fivetonne trucks blasts through Paddock Hill Bend wheel-towheel, launching the British Truck Racing Championship season in front of a grandstand full of cheering fans. Welcome to one of the most highly anticipated seasons in the history of British‘ Big Rig’ racing.
At the head of the field are two drivers with a combined total of 19 titles, battling as hard as ever. Leading by a nose, the bright green truck of Ryan Smith, reigning champion and the driver who has won for nine years in a row; beside him Stuart Oliver, a ten-time title winner determined to finally end his rival’ s dominance and take his haul up to 11.
This season, which follows 2024’ s 40th anniversary of the Championship, has attracted a capacity grid containing eight former title winners and five newcomers to the sport, and with updates to the regulations that promise to make the racing tighter than ever.
Championship manager Gordon Snell took the helm three years ago, having previously worked with Hill Climbs and Sprints. He was expecting to take on an entirely different world of motorsport, but instead, he quickly discovered it was quite the opposite.
“ It’ s a British Championship, so these guys are racing at a national level, but actually the paddock feels like a Club meeting,” he explains.“ Most of the drivers do have a trucking background – either in haulage, or heavy recovery, or in engineering and vehicle repairs – but we do have some who have come straight into this form of racing.
“ It’ s extremely popular with the fans, and the crowds are always pretty big – in fact most circuits tell me it is their biggest crowd of the season, other than the British Touring Car Championship, but the most interesting thing is that around 40 per cent of the people coming to races are female, and there are also lots of children because it is a really family friendly environment.
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Revolution- May 2025
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