Ryan Smith picked up three victories and the biggest trophy in truck racing as he stole the show at Nürburgring
After dominating qualifying, Ryan had taken wins in the Mittelrhein Cup races – which score towards the BTRA Championship – on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. The MAN racer had been on course to complete a clean sweep, making good progress in the opening laps of the 4th race until he tangled with the Mercedes-Benz of local hero Heinz-Werner Lenz and sustained steering damage, forcing an early retirement.
But Ryan had good reason to be celebrating after the final podium presentations on Sunday evening as he collected the ‘Truck Master Germany’ title, which recognised his amazing overall performance during the 2018 ADAC Truck GP event. His three Mittelrhein Cup/BTRA wins, plus strong performances in all four FIA European Championship races, held over the same weekend, made Ryan the undisputed star of the event.
Ryan converted his pole position into a comfortable win in the first race in Germany, with runner-up David Jenkins eventually taking the chequered flag some 11 seconds behind. Stuart Oliver (Volvo) inherited third after fast rising newcomer Jamie Anderson picked up a 10-second ‘over speeding’ penalty, dropping him to fifth.
Ryan also posted the fastest lap of the race (1m, 56.959s) during a dominant performance.
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