Pembrey gears up for thrilling finale among fearsome trucks

The high speed heavyweights of the motor racing world will be in action August 14/15 when competitors in the British Truck Racing Championship pay their third and final visit of the year to Pembrey Circuit for the Pembrey Truck Festival.
The competitors come fresh from a successful contest with France’s leading truck racers at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire where Stuart Oliver took the individual honours. The Hexham racer will be looking to tighten his grip on a tenth British title. He was pushed hard at Thruxton by David Jenkins and the flamboyant racer with Welsh roots will be keen to secure a ‘home’ victory as the 5.5 tonne gargantuans battle it out at speeds up to 100mph. Sharing the bill with their bigger brothers will be the Line-X Pickup Truck Racing Championship contenders. These purpose built racing machines with space-frame chassis and multi valve twin cam engines are renowned for their hard fought door handle to door handle racing. The championship is currently led by Hartlepool racer Michael Smith but he holds only a narrow advantage over two times pickup champion Steve Dance from Reading and former Hot Rod Champion Antony Hawkins, making this weekend’s trio of races crucial in determining the destination of the 2010 title.
Also racing at Pembrey this weekend are the Legends, 5/8 scale racers based on pre-war American Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge coupes and powered by 1250cc Yamaha motorcycle engines. The championship comes to Wales with the top three drivers separated by just 25 points. Three times Legends Champion John Jon Higgins tops the points table but the Chester driver is just 20 points ahead of Surrey man Lawrence Davey with Londoner Stephen Treherne a further five points back.
These small but powerful cars are ideally suited to the 1.5 mile circuit and are with the championship battle so delicately poised they should provide some of the closest racing of the weekend. But there is also plenty more on offer for race fans over the course of the weekend. With 11 rounds of the Welsh Sports and Saloon Car Championship completed the lead in the championship is currently shared by 2009 champion Russell Haggerty in his Raw Striker sports car and Rover saloon car driver Kareem Elsorafy while Neil Watts is only three points behind driving his Westfield sports car. With three races on the programme this weekend could be pivotal in this title fight as well. Completing the packed programme, single seater action will be provided by the Classic Formula Ford and Formula Ford 2000 championships for race cars from the 1970s and 80s.

Qualifying begins at 9:30 on Saturday with a seven race programme starting at 12:50. No fewer than 13 races are scheduled for Sunday, getting underway at 10:00. Admission is £12 each day with accompanied children up to 14 years old admitted free.