Stuart Oliver wins first T1 Prima Truck Racing Championship

Following the preview of the T1 Prima Truck Racing last month, the event finally hit the track for some exciting truck racing action. The championship comprised of two races, a 5 lap Sprint Race and a 15 lap main race, with 15 points and 25 points being rewarded to the winner. Stuart Oliver of Team Castrol Vectron drove brilliantly to take top honours in both the races to be crowned the champion of the debut season of the Championship on India’s F1 track, Buddh International Circuit.

Stuart and the other 12 drivers on the grid steered heavily modified Tata Prima trucks that produced 375PS of power and were capable of reaching of top speed of 110km/h. Watching these massive trucks go around the Formula 1 circuit was unlike anything ever seen mainly taking into consideration that the entire pack was extremely close and fighting throughout the race. Both the races saw a lot of action on track and with drivers fighting hard for positions. Ben Horne took pole position in qualifying on Saturday but couldn’t quite take the advantage of it and dropped down to the back of the pack in the race. Steve on the other hand, got off to a brilliant start, managed to constantly gain positions and after an intense battle with Mathew Summerfield took the lead eight laps into the race. The ten-time British Truck Racing Champion completed the 15 lap race in 30:26.848 minutes on the 2.1km short loop. Summerfield and David Jenkins took second and third places respectively.

Although Truck racing has been around for more than 35 years now, the concept was not quite ventured into in India. The introduction of the T1 Prima Truck Racing Championship by Tata marks a new beginning in the history of India Motorsports.