Round 3 & 4 - Rockingham

The teams and officials coped with the tight schedule to include qualifying, a drivers briefing and two enthralling races in a single day's racing.

Steve Dance weekend's highest points scorer finished with 390 points after a win and third place.

Race one on Sunday lunchtime saw Nic Grindrod start from pole, alongside John Mickel, who was racing on pure adrenalin having spent half the night commentating on Nascar for Sky television.

It was Grindrod who took the early lead with Simon Carr coming through from the second row to lie second ahead of 2008 Champion Gavin Seager. By lap four veteran Phil White was in on the act and was on a mission, charging through the pack in to second and not content with that was soon challenging for the lead, which he took on lap six and held for a couple of laps until Steve Dance took control of the race.

Simon Carr was next to move in to the lead on lap 15 taking Seager and White with him, as the lead pack battled continually and were heading in to the turns three wide.

Both Kelly-Jayne Wells and Nic Grindrod pushed to the front for a stint before Seager tried his hand again on lap 20. The yellow flags and safety car were brought out on lap 20 as new driver to Pickup Truck Racing, Carl Boardley was involved in an incident, which also saw Dave Briggs's Truck badly damaged.

Lap 28 saw green racing once again and Wells back to the lead ahead of Dance, (showing no ill effects of the 40kg of success ballast he was carrying) White and Seager. It was this train that swallowed the #21 Truck pushing her back to seventh by lap 31. Dance held on to take the victory ahead of White, while Grindrod just snuck through to secure the final podium spot. Antony Hawkins recorded his first ever fastest lap in a race, to recognise the improvement he's shown in the past 18 months with the Sutton Coldfield driver also equalling his best Rockingham result of seventh in the Team Rockingham Truck.

Race two and Dance had a further 30kg success ballast while White was now carrying 20kg and Grindrod 10. Carr and Michael Smith were still carrying 20kg and 10kg respectively from their Brands Hatch wins - although both lost 10kg for finishing outside the top three in race one.

Both Dave Briggs and Carl Boardley just managed to get their Trucks repaired to take their starting places. Smith was on pole for race two alongside Seager who might have thought he had nothing but the open track in front of him to the chequered flag, but behind him was a hungry pack of eight Trucks, all set to challenge the Ipswich driver.

Smith stuck with Seager for several laps but then Phil White and Nic Grindrod moved through to take up second and third places respectively and create a small gap to the chasing pack.

By lap seven Pete Stevens was in on the game too and by lap nine was leading and heard to have said on the radio to his spotter 'now I'm leading, what do I do?!'

Seager retook the lead going under the gantry to begin lap 16 with Phil White and Nic Grindrod following him with the draft on Stevens, who was in a determined mood and regained third on lap 24 as the lead pack of eight Trucks stuck back together again and vied for position. Grindrod was now struggling with an engine problem and dropping down the field.

By lap 32 Seager was back in the thick of the action up at the front and moved through to take the lead, but the drafting began once again. A fuel problem for Phil White allowed Seager to take the lead bringing Stevens with him. The pair stayed like this at the chequered flag with Steve Dance completing a great day to take the final podium place just ahead of Kelly-Jayne Wells.

Race Report - Sarah Carnell

Photographs courtesy of www.davidswandesign.com - see below