600 miles travelling, taking two days to get there, in my trusty 19year old Kenworth K100. Maybe I could claim free road tax as she is nearing an antique now. But, pretty as a picture and 400hp to carry my Race Truck around is just enough at 29tons to cruise at 70mph, doing four miles to the gallon. Yes - 4 miles to the gallon! I will need 700 litres of diesel to get me there and back! And about 300 litres for the Race Truck at the Meeting, as that does one mile to the gallon! Won't be buying it in England though - That's for sure! So- as soon as we're in Belgium we fill up for two thirds of the English price!

We arrived at the track on Thursday evening after setting off Wednesday morning from Enstone, very tired. We found a hotel in the middle of Belgium late on Wednesday night, but it was next to a railway line, and either rattling tipper trucks on the road, or clanking freight trains kept us awake most of the night! So we were all looking forward to a good night's sleep!

Friday's qualifying sessions did not go well, with me struggling to find a decent set up in the changing weather conditions - giving us a poor grid position for the races on Saturday. I wasn't too bothered though. I never could qualify well and like to make up the positions in the race - so I can go forward without having to worry about watching my mirrors. Part of my set up problems was down to the so-called adjustable shock absorbers we were trying this Season. Nurburgring has a really smooth surface to the track, whereas Thruxton is really bumpy. They didn't seem to be adjusting to compensate for this, so we decided to take them off the truck that night and have a proper look at them. The other problem I had was getting to grips with the new Stadium Complex introduced this year, to improve the Formula One Race earlier in the year. At turn one, you now nearly have to stop to make the corner, and with my brakes 100mph to 20mph is a tall order! You then go through a series of slower corners that the truck wants to go faster than the Track will allow, and I just kept falling off until I went slower to stay on the tarmac!

In my opinion they have taken away most of the fast, challenging character of this famous circuit and replaced it with a 'Mickey Mouse' series of slow turns, which may suit Formula One, but not Truck Racing. This new section was to cost me a great deal on Saturday…

Saturday morning came and the weather was wet. The shocks, after being hit by a hammer and some lubrication last night, were working again, and all looked good. I took up my place on the grid in the first Anglo/French Race, about 12th, I think. Round we went on the rolling start. We all hurtled down to the new first corner for the first Truck Race to try it in race conditions. I passed a few, but tried to keep as far as I could to the right of the Track, into the first right hander thinking - the big problem will come either on the left-hand side going in, or going out with everyone being squeezed or hit from behind! Sure enough all this happened on the left-hand side, while I nipped through up the inside into 6th place! Turn 2, and 1 overtook another Truck around the outside - into 5th and attacking! I felt I could win that race in the wet. I had a good run out of turn 3, and approaching turn 4, which is a tight right hander. I shot down the inside of a Black Man Phoenix Frenchman, and was ready to outbrake him into the corner. I was on the inside and could not fail to take the place, but I was going a bit quick!! Praying I could stop and make the corner in a sec or two!! As I got half way down his inside, he turned in on me, and we touched - Ok - but I was on the inside, and I thought that I could cope with that, and turned into the corner myself. What I hadn't figured on though was the Phoenix passing me round the outside going backwards at about 40mph with its driver fighting to keep control! Suddenly he reversed into my driver's side front wheel - I was doing about 30mph so we had about a 60mph impact and there was a very big bang!! See Diagram 1

The Phoenix ended up with his rear axle knocked out of line, but did manage to continue for a couple of corners only, then parked it up. I could not move at all, even though I tried, as my clutch pedal was on the floor and I couldn't continue as all of my nearside tyres were flat, the front nearside road spring and u/bolts were broken. The front hub was badly damaged and my front axle pushed back about 2ft! My bonnet and front bumper had been knocked sideways - all the nearside fibreglass side-guard and wings were in a million bits all over the Track! Oh and my cab door was all dented in and wouldn't open, with the front anti-roll bar dug into the tarmac!!

The red flag came out, and the Race was stopped.

Once I'd got out of the cab and seen the damage from the outside my heart sank, because the poor old girl was in a terrible mess! This was the heaviest crash we had had together since I bought her. Needless to say I had to have heavy recovery back to the pits! I had to sit in her on the back of the recovery truck and as we passed a huge TV screen by the side of the Track there we were on TV being transmitted all over Germany! All smashed up - on the back of a German recovery vehicle! Eventually - following the specific recovery route at the maximum speed (slow) by my ever efficient German driver we arrived back at our pit, after being gawped at by
Hundreds of Race fans on the way. I felt like a goldfish in a bowl all the way back!

Ben looked gutted, and I didn't want to talk about what happened either. Someone asked me if I was all right. I think I said 'Yes.' Then, 'Go away' politely! The best of it was that that was not the British Championship Race! That was next on the program! So I watched the boys go out on the Track without me, and I didn't score any points at all that day!

I went into my Race Transporter living compartment, shut the door, had a cup of coffee and got changed. I came back out about an hour later to have a look at the damage close up. Ben had already started taking off the bonnet, and other broken bits off and was jacking her up onto blocks, with his girlfriend Kylie, and Jess helping him. What a state the Race Truck looked. I didn't think we'd be racing tomorrow. That was 3pm on Saturday - by 4pm I had been convinced by Ben that he could get her out on the Track for me in the morning although she wouldn't look very pretty! A very tall order I thought to myself, but I wouldn't discourage the boy, we'll give it a go!

The most important thing was the clutch, without this we wouldn't be going anywhere. A metal piece of shrapnel had cut the fluid pipe clean through. We had a spare front spring and u/bolts with us, and plenty of tank tape, but every piece of braided hose we had with us either had one or both end joints incompatible with what we required, and I couldn't risk trying to join it in the middle! While Ben had his helpers were trying to sort out the suspension, I went on the hunt up the pit line trying to find a suitable pipe or hose or anything that would do the job! Everywhere I went
people were saying 'What happened Steve?' I just smiled and carried on until I came to the pit of the Black Phoenix, which I walked straight by without looking at them at all! I could hear a lot of heavy banging from their hammers, trying to straighten up their rear axle as I went past. Good job I didn't stop or look though, or else anything could have happened! I did the whole paddock top to bottom and no one could help me with what I required. The most helpful guy was Lutz Bernau the 2001 European Race Truck Champion. How about this then… He lent me a man and a car to take me to Koblenz - about 100 miles travelling. Called another guy he knew at home at 8pm on Saturday night, who came into work to make us a new pipe at his factory. What a mate! Thanks VERY much Lutz. All I had to pay for was the pipe. My faith in human nature went up no end! Lutz said that the Brits had helped him back at Thruxton, when he'd crashed three years ago, 'You're welcome!" Although nearly three hours with a stranger in a car, who didn't speak English was quite difficult! We got back to the Track at about 10.30pm with the pipe.

Ben had got the new road spring on, and had realigned the front axle. We fitted the new clutch pipe and bled it up to make sure it would be ok for the morning!?! That was successful so the work continued under floodlights well after midnight. At around 1am other Team mechanics were coming around with cans of beer in their hands, and saw what we were up against. Each one of them put their beers down, rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in, helping to try and get her ready for the morning. Special thanks to Ross' boys, to Roy's man, Jason and various other Brit Team members who helped out.

I was told to go to bed at 3am, which I did reluctantly.

I was back at 8am on Sunday morning to find a Truck that was complete, but looked like something out of a Mad Max film, with plenty of grey tank tape holding her body panels together!

My Truck in the paddock was the only one I could see though, as the whole Track was fog-bound. The weather had closed in and visibility was down to about 20yards! Ok in my car at about 30mph but not good for Truck racing at 100mph! So- the day's racing was put on hold…. At 10am the organisers announced they would decide at 12noon if they were going to cancel the day's racing. At 12mid-day they did cancel it as we were still fogged in. So all our work the night before had been for nothing….No points either on Sunday.

We all loaded up in the fog and went home. In hindsight I should have stayed at home, still got no points, and would not have smashed her up bad either, costing me a load of money!

So- the less said about Germany the better - and once again - Ah! That's Truck Racing!!