The battle for title supremacy in Division 1 of the British Truck Racing Championship is set to go down to the wire after three drivers reigned supreme at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit this past weekend (September 26-27).
Taking centre stage at the iconic French track in front of more than 70,000 spectators, the stars of the UK’s heavyweight motorsport series emerged for the penultimate event of the season to deliver a plethora of thrills and spills.
When all was said and done, former title winner David Jenkins and ten-time champion Stuart Oliver now head to next month’s season finale at Brands Hatch in the box seat towards the top of the standings.
Despite lap times far exceeding two minutes around the Le Mans circuit, the destiny of pole position in qualifying on Saturday was ultimately decided by the smallest of margins – four thousandths of a second to be precise.
Craig Reid had looked destined to snare pole position but a late charge, in addition to the monitoring of track limits, saw Jenkins claim a deserved pole position; although there was barely anything between them.
It was Simon Reid that actually reigned supreme in the weekend’s opening encounter as he fought his way to the front of the field as the red lights went out and then produced a sublime defensive masterclass.
Fending off the race-long advances of Jenkins, Reid was wheel-perfect to clinch his second win of the season. Further back, his brother in the team’s sister Iveco was also driving magnificently as he held off a hoard of driver to secure third.
Race two proved to be a contest of attrition as a number of incidents, two of which included Jenkins, truncated proceedings. When all was said and done, Michael Oliver was declared the winner ahead of the Reid siblings.
Not content with winning race two, Oliver carried his front-running form into second qualifying on Sunday morning as he romped to a deserved pole position.
The MAN racer would unfortunately not be able to convert it into a podium finish however as a fraught opening lap of three saw him fall back. As he fell, Craig Reid surged into the lead and cantered to victory ahead of Stuart Oliver and John Bowler.
With the Iveco seemingly working well around world-famous French venue, Simon Reid closed out proceedings in the same manner he had started it, by charging to a sublime lights-to-flag victory.
The popular race ran untroubled out front to snare his third win of the year while behind him, Nathan Smith scored a brilliant second place. Jenkins completed the podium in third as he crucially out-scored Oliver.
The British Truck Racing Championship now returns to the United Kingdom and will conclude its 2026 season at Brands Hatch on October 31-November 1.
