Challenging Weekend in Germany for Jenkins

“Challenging,” was the one word answer from Dave Jenkins to sum up his weekend spent racing at the Nurburgring in Germany on the European leg of the British Truck Racing Championships.

Decent drives by the “MAN in Black” in qualifying and the two races on Saturday and Sunday earned 12 points overall but the real bonus was to pick up two on current Championship leader, Mat Summerfield.

The Digraph Transport Supplies sponsored Jenkins Motorsport Team were busy from the moment they arrived at the world famous track on Thursday changing their engine to be ready for the qualifying session next day.

The extra power gained was offset by some problems with the suspension set up but it was confusion over readings from the speed limiters and a ruling from officials that saw Dave Jenkins start from the back of the grid in race one.

Despite that handicap the “MAN in Black” made great progress through the field and was running well when a collision between Steve Thomas and Mat Summerfield brought the race to a halt. After the restart the lead truck was leaking diesel while Dave Jenkins discovered he was losing brake coolant water and with three laps to go had overheating brakes. Despite that he held on to finish in fifth place.

On Sunday, from sixth on the grid, “MAN in Black” had a terrific start and had moved into third when the race was stopped for the first time. After the restart, Dave again got off well to hold third place and was in position to challenge for the lead when again the race had to be stopped. At the third time of asking “MAN in Black” was caught in traffic and took a couple of hefty blows but then settled into the race again finishing in a creditable fifth place. The bonus for the team was that their main rival for the championship, Summerfield failed to finish and didn’t score.

Dave Jenkins said: “It wasn’t quite the weekend I was hoping for but overall I was pleased with the way the truck was running and we’ve managed to make up some of the points difference between myself and Mat Summerfield. Once we get a chance to work on it more I’m confident the new engine will give us some extra power and that will set us up nicely for the next round at Donington.”

James Rawson, Managing Director of Digraph Transport Supplies said: “I thought Dave and the team did a brilliant job over the weekend. To get the new engine in and race like they did was a real credit to them.”