I spent this quite glorious Sunday at Thruxton, for what was sometimes referred to as the circuit’s Truck Racing Festival. Apart from some rather unremarkable sportscar races – which I therefore won’t bother to remark upon – it’s was a smasher. Literally.

That’s the start of the second British Truck Racing Association Championship race. Stuart Oliver is in the lead, with Dave Jenkins behind him being hit by Terry Gibbon. Incidentally, isn’t it a snappy and imaginative name for a series?

Oliver is the big name in British truck racing, and had a brief stint in the British Touring Car Championship in 2008, driving for the uncompetitive BTC Racing. He made an odd comment in an interview at the circuit – unless I misheard – about the audiences for truck and touring car racing not really overlapping. Having been in the crowd, I think he’s wrong. There was the usual mix of die-hard fans, families, and general motorsport types – MotoGP, BTCC and Formula 1 merchandise were everywhere to be seen.

Still, he’s forgiven, for winning his first race of the afternoon in quite spectacular fashion, having started from the back of the grid. It was part of the International Truck Challenge, which was basically just a series of races featuring drivers from the British and French truck racing championships. It put more truck racing on the schedule, and was therefore a good thing.

That said, the Pickup Truck Racing was rather good fun. They generally race on ovals, and look very American – in a good way, in that they’re bright and colourful. In fact, there’s a photo of a couple of them in the photos section.