The last weekend of the 7 meeting series (8 weekends if you include testing) for 2025, what a year! Storming through the pack for the first few meetings. 9 first places, 1 Second place, 2 broken windscreens, a “not placed”, a suspension failure and a gear box selection issue out of the first 15 races. Frankie was the Division 2 truck to beat on the track! Seems so long ago now! Then in this none-contact sport we were hit hard, and a season was “lost” in an instant.
Now that Archie has completed his apprenticeship as a fully fledged HGV fitter, father and son have gone into business together – with “mum” Lou too! C and H Commercials Ltd was born and started trading on 1st October 2025. This new venture offers Commercial Vehicle, car and van repairs, PMIs, Brake Testing and Tacho Calibration. All from a sparkling new facility with top notch, brand new equipment. 24hr roadside rescue is on offer too, along with late night and weekend appointments to keep your fleet going. Yes, a shameless plug, but your truck could be fixed, fast, by a team that knows how much that matters!
With the new venture up and running, both trucks were taken to Brands Hatch, but, in the end only one was raced. With work coming in fast, and customers to get back on the road, Simon (or Archie), needed to be on-call and ready to return to work in an instant. The workshop is very close to the track, being only a few minutes from J4 of the M20.
So, the decision was made – Simon would sit this one out, even if Si and Frankie had a “perfect” weekend, the only person they would leapfrog in the points table was Archie.
So, at the last minute and due to the constraints of the new business, Si was on-call, and Archie took out Frankie – a competitive truck at last for the youngster.
Since the last meeting a new axle had been fitted to Frankie, and a new differential. But this had a different flange to the prop, and given the new business, to be honest (and quite correctly) the race truck had not been a priority. The truck was finished at 4:30 am, on the Friday morning after an “all-nighter” in the new workshop. With half of the team at Brands Hatch putting up the paddock set-up and ready for the truck’s arrival.
Friday saw some sessions of testing, and they did not go well, with the new (second hand) axle having a wheel bearing failure, and an oil leak. A new wheel bearing was sourced from a local supplier, collected and by 1 am on the Saturday morning “Frankie” was race fit.
Qualifying on the Saturday saw Archies first time to put Frankie (a left hooker) through her paces. Archie quickly adjusted to “dads’ truck” after trying to change gear with the door handle a few times! Also, a few of the less critical switches were difficult to reach – Simon has longer arms! Qualifying was short lived with the new (smaller axle) and prop shaft alignment hitting the guard. Solution? Cut the guard off so that Frankie could run properly.
So last on the grid for the 1st race of the weekend which ended in a disqualification. The smaller axle had put the whole truck under the required weight. We knew it would be close, but not that close ! That and Archie getting use to his first race in a competitive truck and being on the “wrong” side of the cab too. Also, a blocked breather in the new (ish) axle was causing some issues – but that was easily fixed.
Race 2 was cancelled following a start line incident at the beginning of the race. A truck at close to 100mph connected with the pit wall causing severe damage to the safety fencing and, of course, the side of the truck. Given the state of the fencing, and the time of the day, with the light closing in, it was considered too dangerous to continue.
So how does a team safely add additional weight to a truck as an “immediate” fix over a Saturday night? Simple, add two more (spare) water tanks with 180Kg of water in them
Sunday saw the Truck out on the track again and Archie getting in some track time during the first race. Then reports of a reduction in control and back end problems – and it wasn’t due to a curry the night before! “Frankie” had succumbed to a spring failure, but luckily “the boss” (Simon) was in the pits, and the parts were on the support truck. Just, and only just, the spring was changed between races 1 and 2 on the Sunday.
By then, really, we were in “shake down” mode for the new axle, and Archie was just enjoying the drive of a “proper” race truck after “Ovlov” the Volvo, and perfecting his race craft. We also found out, to our cost in some respects, that the replacement differential we had acquired was not what we have been told. It was actually the wrong ratio when paired to our gearbox. So “Frankie”, while capable of 100mph, had to “rev” more to get there and was, therefore, operating above the main powerband of the engine. So while 100mph was possible, the acceleration to get there was poor and not what it should have been.
So a disappointing end to a disappointing season, we could have been, so easily, Championship winners, but that’s racing for you, this year it wasn’t ours.
So onwards, upwards, or just sideways (knowing us) and into the 2026 season – See you there.
Like always we have plans – but I’m not telling you those ! .. and they will probably change anyway.
If you know, you know.
A huge thank you to our supporters, we will be back !
Check out our “Gallery” page for more pictures from the event!
Thanks to J H Haulage, Weavers and Povey Transport who are helping us get around – so thank you, without you we would be stuck at home in Aylesford!
THANK YOU to ALL our wonderful sponsors, especially LPM; to the businesses who help us out in kind, or with cash (although we accept cheques too of course!), we could NOT do this without you ALL. No matter how big or small your help – this team of family and friends could not do this without YOU. YOU made it possible for Simon, and Archie, putting father and son on the track. THANK YOU. (but we always need more help of course).
Please check out our “Partners” page to find out more about our sponsors.
See us all, cheer on Archie and Simon and “THINK PINK” at the Circuits if you can – we are always happy to chat and show you our race trucks. Unless we are repairing them of course, in which case best to give us some space to work safely.
If you cannot visit the track, then remember to check out the “BARC” live feed on YouTube – or of course on “catch up” later.
CTS#41 and CTS#40; Simon, Archie, John, Colin, Sam, Toby, Martin, Guy, Lou, Olivier and Zeki.
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