DAVID Jenkins took a commanding victory in the final British truck racing championship race of the 2013 season at Brands Hatch on Sunday after a tense contest.
Rody Smit and Jenkins led their respective classes at the start and made a fine job of building up a gap on their immediate pursuers.
So relentless was Jenkins’ pace, he was past Jim Bennett by lap four and chasing Smit.
It took just half a lap for the 2011 division one champion to take the race lead and with his closest challenger Ben Horne back in seventh place, he set about stamping his authority over the race.
Mat Summerfield was now attacking Horne, and ahead of both were most of division two, currently stick behind Bennett.
Nevertheless, Summerfield powered through all of them within a lap and was soon past Smit too.
Bennett’s defence was being tested, but he made the most of the faster trucks, letting them through while keeping tabs on his class rivals.
Steven Powell managed to edge past into second place in class, and Bennett’s hitherto superb race began to crumble as he clashed with Simon Reid and spun at Graham Hill bend on lap 12.
All the while, Jenkins held a huge lead over Summerfield, with Thomas now in third as Smit came under attack from the rest of the division one trucks, led by Horne, Cees Zandbergen, Luke Taylor and Sascha Lenz.
Steven Powell's strong performance ended on lap 15 when he entered the gravel at Druids and one lap later Jenkins took the chequered flag a little under ten seconds clear of division one champion Summerfield.
Thomas was a little further behind, followed by Horne, Zandbergen, Taylor and Lenz, while Smit took the division two spoils in eighth place, followed by Graham Powell and division two champion David Smith.
Jenkins said: “I’m sorry it wasn’t the race that the crowd were here for - the last race covered that.
“But we had good pace and thanks to the enthusiastic crowd for sticking around.
“My family are here and we got the best of the team today.”
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