British Truck Racing – Citroen C1 Series – Max5 Championship – Legends Championship

City Cars and more at Donington Park

23 Aug 2020

In my quest to catch up on a season’s motorsport photography in approximately half of that time, I recently found myself at Donington Park for the British Truck Racing meeting. In the absence of higher profile events – in the UK or further afield, I have been expanding my horizons to grassroots events on two, three and four wheels.

So, heck, why not six wheels and truck racing as well ?  In reality, I’d missed the C1 three-hour race on the same bill – although I had seen the C1s racing at Brands Hatch last Autumn on the Britcar bill.

My friend, and supplier of 1/43 scale car models for nearly 30 years, Andre Marot, was sharing the Exit 13 Citroen C1 car called, for obvious reasons, Brie having previously driven Renault 5s (a long time ago), and won karting championships.

Having hung up his helmet from karting, the competitive urge was rekindled by the chance to race a C1. Really ?

Well yes, when you have seen 99 of them head off for a 24 hour race at Silverstone or, as last weekend, 50 of them head down a wet Craner Curves … Andre (AM) takes up the story.

AM - It’s been a while !  Ten months, to be precise, since sitting in #395 “Brie” at the Citroen Spa 24hrs last October which would be true of many of the teams and drivers who took part in the C1 Racing Club’s first visit to the world famous track.

Since then Brie had been joined by #555 called Bernie

AM - Apparently, the field of 50 cars is the largest car grid the Donington Park track has hosted and yes, it was busy out there. With 4 drivers to cycle through the 50 minute qualifying session, allowing for the mandated minimum of 2 ½ minute pitstops (to allow for sanitising the cockpit controls between each driver), we each only had 2 flying laps available.

DH – The last time I had seen the C1s qualify was at Brands Hatch and the session was red flagged within minutes and the second and third drivers qualified in convoy due to lack of time.

Having parked on the “tarmac lake” behind Redgate / Hollywood, I was able to grab a few – heading down Craners – shots for starters plus a couple of through the fence back up hill.

AM - Rusty to almost seized with caution, a red flag on my first flying lap was not ideal especially on a first racing visit to the circuit but thanks to my teammates Mike Evans, Craig Rankine and Paul Laurie we were on the grid, albeit down in 44^th.

Debate was held as to whether we should start from the pitlane to avoid any first lap carnage but it was decided to take up position on the grid for the race start.

DH – The cause of the red flag mentioned by Andre was a spectacular roll for one of Progressive Motorsport’s cars – fortunately with no damage to the driver and remarkably little apparent damage to the car ! I’d got as far as Starkey’s Bridge and was looking to right way at the right time.

AM - The rain came in plenty of time before the start (DH – not for the Legends in the previous race, however !) allowing all drivers to mentally prepare and yet the first laps proved closer than close for some with an early Safety Car to allow the track marshals the opportunity to dig a couple of cars out of the gravel traps.

DH – Although #500 was running very close to Exit13’s Bernie, they lost it all on their own. 

DH - Having been recovered by the excellent marshals team, #500 simply drove round the perimeter road until he could rejoin the circuit and carry on in the race.

AM - What's it like entering Redgate in a crowd and planning your moves to the Old Hairpin? Awesome ! You have to be aware of where everyone else is and where they will want to be next. You can't afford to lose sight of anyone behind or to the side or else you may squeeze another driver too much whilst looking for the optimum lines and an out-brake into the Old Hairpin.

Of course, there's plenty of room for these little cars but everyone wants the same piece of tarmac as it's the quickest.  Get too close to another car and bend a mirror is a real vision issue.

DH - The slippery track was still proving challenging to some – I am clearly getting better at this photography lark as I kept the finger on the shutter button to capture the whole of this tank-slapper for #419 rather than stopping shooting to watch the accident not quite happen !

AM - This triggered ‘free’ pitstops for many of the 2 and 3 driver teams to tick off 1 of the mandated minimum 3 driver changes. A bonus for us in terms of track position, re-starting the competitive laps in 9^th place by which time the rain had stopped, the sun and wind doing their best to dry the circuit.

DH - The race settled into a long stretch of green flag running with the cars running in large groups which is not surprising given that cars are broadly identical 998cc C1s. Some attempted to gain an advantage by shedding bodywork.

AM - We were 15^th when I took over for the second 40 minute stint and it didn’t take long to put caution to the wind, head down and crack on but the starting driver’s warning of exhaust fumes in the cockpit were an early sign of a looming issue.

Fast through Redgate and all the way to Coppice, poor “Brie” was struggling on the 2 long straights and it was proving a battle to make headway. 

AM - Don’t get me wrong here, it was all really great fun with constant racing to pass and be passed and yet, in that proverbial blink of the eye the “In” board was being shown and time to hand over to our next driver, happy the car was still in one piece and in 16^th position.

DH – I had been working my way round to Coppice where there is a superb spot on the inside of the track for a panning shot through the corner. Up until then I had been using the 200-500 zoom – but swapped to the 70-200 lens here.

My double height step gives an extra bit of clearance over the concrete wall. It’s just a shame that the background is a little messy and can be spoilt by vehicles on the perimeter road.

So, I’m not just keeping the shutter button down, I am now noticing the background as well!

DH – For some variety, I walked back round to McLeans on the outside of the track and was treated to some orange on blue action as Brie was forced wide by Bernie !

DH - Somehow, this also affected the next half a dozen cars – with #520 briefly facing the wrong way before resuming!

AM - Frustratingly, with 15 or so minutes to go, “Brie’s” motor had had enough! Oil going somewhere oil shouldn’t go (hence the fumes) can’t go on forever and with a loud clanking our day was prematurely over. All-in-all, a great day’s competition.

Lap times were competitive despite our combined tentative start and a promise that before the Thruxton 3hrs at the end of October we will go and practice.

For an old-school guy, you can only get so far using your son’s PlayStation and the sim at Simply Race (Milton Keynes). There’s nothing like doing it for real…

DH – Sister car Bernie went on to finish 38^th. Winners Progressive Motorsport won by under 1 second with the top 4 covered by less that 4 seconds. I am aiming to get to Thruxton for the next episode of C1 City Car Capers

Postscript

This was my first experience of Truck Racing in the metal. I was slightly disconcerted when the marshals deserted their posts for the spectator banks while I was allowed to stand behind the barriers as usual. I guess it was something to do with sight lines – that and the size of the trucks !

They don’t seem to belch black smoke in the way they used to when I watched it on the TV some years back – which is probably a good thing for their public image.  I was at Coppice for the first race.

For their second race, I was at the Esses / Chicane on the inside. On lap 1, a truck went into the gravel at Coppice and wasn’t going anywhere fast initiating a red flag. Sensing it would take a while, I headed to the centre of the track for a tray of chips to sustain me for the rest of the afternoon – and watched the re-started race looking down over Craners, the Old Hairpin and Starkeys.

Perversely, perhaps, they were more impressive charging down Craners in a line and occasionally out braking each other at the Old Hairpin.

Glad I saw it, yes. Would I seek it out specifically in future ? Probably not.  There were however other attractions on the bill – not the least of which was Legends !  I’ve seen these 5/8^th scale, Yamaha bike engined cars before and they are good value.

Then it rained as well!

The final races on the bill for Saturday were for MX5s. I have seen these in the wet at Donington before. A light, rear wheel drive sportscar with just enough power … perfect.

There’s more photos of both the C1s and the support races on my Flickr account.