Snetterton double header - Qualify and Race 1

Qualify
Just as we went do to the assembly area it started to rain. We went back to get the allen keys and spanners needed to disconnect the anti roll bars but in the end decided that the track was going to dry as the session went on. Unfortunately although it stopped raining, it never dried off and because we were the first out on track on Sunday following a full day of racing in the dry the day before meant that the track was very very slippery. My main problem during the session was the lack of tyre temperature. I even had a nice trip into the corn fields at the exit of Riches simply by locking the front wheels up for a split second, exploring the limit of grip!
So qualifying was not a very successful start to the weekend but thankfully the day cleared up and we had 2 nice dry races.

Race 1
I had a good start off the line, followed John Cutmore close into sear, I ran a wide line in and cut to the inside for the exit, caught a slipstream for the first part of the straight and past John before we entered the the Essess.
On lap 2 as I came through Corum in front of John, I had a slight lock up in Russels, John copied me and takes out the centre post on the chicane in dramatic style. I must admit I do not remember seeing this in the race, I must have had my eyes elsewhere!




By lap3 I was catching the lead pack of Mike Field, Mike Atkinson and Martin Brookes. We all came down into Russells in a close group and had some slipstreaming fun. On the entry to the Essess there were sparks coming from the front corner of Martins car and I slipped through on the inside of the Bomb Hole as he let me though.

The following lap I overtook Mike but he took me out at Russels, spun me around and I droped back quite a long way down the field with all that work to do again. Mike rejoined just behind John Cutmore, Steve Robinson and Paul Rogers with Mike Field still leading the race for Class C and Rob leading Class A and the overall race.

After returning to the mid pack, I set about catching them all up again, starting on Lap 5 with a 1:19.72. Only Rob and Paul were running quicker at this stage of the race so there seemed to be no lasting damage from the impact with Mike!

Lap 6 was nice and clear for me which enabled me to get put my head down, concentrate on lines and carry good mid corner speed to get a 1:17.64 whilst catching Martin Brookes. This would end up being my fastest lap and the fastest lap of the race. Thats a 0.4 second improvement over last year.


Lap 7 was back into the 1:20's as I caught up with John and on the following lap I overtook John and Mike Atkinson again.


On lap 9 I managed to catch up with Mike field and got a really good run out of the Essess, closing quickly through the bomb hole and slipped up the inside at Corum to take the lead for the Class C runners. The only remain cars in front were Rob leading overall, followed by Steve and then Paul who was next on track in front.
By lap 10 I can caught Paul up and passed him on the exit of Corum. Paul ran a little wide at this point and David Wick took some fantastic pictures of Paul's wild ride on the grass which I have uploaded to Flickr here.
In fact both my Dad and David took a large number of excellent quality photos, thats my excuse for the time it has taken to do the blog, I had so many to browse through!

Amazingly Paul kept the car under control, bounced around and returned to the track to brake just like normal and continue as if nothing happened!

I then put in another 1:17 lap to catch up with Steve Robinson in the class A Genesis.

From lap 11 through to the end was just behind Steve. I slowed down to his pace and ran a little back from him as his car is very noisy and slipstreaming just meant my water and oil temps started to rise a little.



The damage from the impact was not too great. Just a bit of the rear wheel taken off as you can see from this photo.
We did need to sort out rear brakes again, in the same way as after Cadwell as they were starting to lock the inside rear into Russells occasionally and I did not want the same problem we had at Cadwell! It would seem that the compound of the rear shoes is either too soft or just faulty as it seems to be continuously breaking up. Time for some alternative shoes I think

So from a rather uncharacteristic qualify and being a lot further down the grid than I am used to, was a race win and fastest lap which will do a world of good the Championship points. In fact Gordon was to have some problems with an engine cut out dropping him down the field to record a 3rd place all be it with fastest lap and Mike Atkinson had a spin towards the end of the race which helped even more with the points gap.