SNETTERTON - 29th/30th May 2010 - Rounds 3 & 4

Friday Testing

After a long gap from the last 2 rounds we were back on a track again and one of my
favourites. It’s a very fast and demanding circuit.
I went out on dry settings and within 10 laps I got down to a respectable time and was
only 1 second off of what I had done last year in qualifying.
Out in the second session with some changes made and tyre change I went even
quicker and would have been on pole for last year’s race.
The last 2 sessions were not any quicker due to track temperature changes but we
were happy with the times that were set.

Saturday Qualifying

Saturday morning was dry and I was feeling confident for a good position on the grid.
I went out on new slicks and slowly got some heat into the tyres. The pit board was
showing me that I was in P2 then down to P4. I managed to get a couple of fairly clear
laps to put me back to P2 and 0.2 seconds behind Alex Craven with 5 minutes to.
I tried to get another quick lap in but each time I had to go off the racing line to pass a
slower car which prevented me going any quicker.
Unfortunately Chris Needham managed to find some clear laps and 2nd on the grid
with 1 minute to go.

Saturday PM Race 1

It had started to rain quite hard which was going make the track conditions very tricky
and as we have not tested at Snetterton in the wet before nor raced in wet conditions.
Mark Bailey and his Team changed everything to wet settings and the rest was down
to me.
We did 2 rolling up laps to see how the track was and also to get some heat into the
tyres.
Alex on pole spun twice on the warm up laps which showed how slippery the track
was.
On the start line the lights went out, I made a fairly good start and kept 3rd.
Chris Needham managed to take the lead and I tried to get past Alex for 2nd. Going
into Russells bend I attempted to out brake Alex but changed down too many gears
and locked the rear of the car up causing me to spin off the track. I managed to keep
the engine running and found first gear. I then had to wait for a gap to get me back on
the track which put me down to 8th place.
Whilst I was so angry at making a mistake I also had to stay calm and started catching
the cars in front and passing them until I got back up to 3rd. The gap for the lead was
at 15 seconds and each lap the gap came down. With 10 minutes to go Alex had spun
again which promoted me to 2nd and 10 seconds behind Chris Needham.
After another 2 laps the gap was down to 5 seconds and I was 2.5 seconds a lap
quicker in wet than any one on the track.
With only 4 minutes to go the red flags came out as John Gray had spun off in a
dangerous position causing the race to stop.
Even though I was the quickest driver in the wet and finished 2nd I was still annoyed
with my self with spinning off and should have waited and bided my time.

Sunday Race 2

I was hoping for another wet race today and it was so close but with 15 minutes to go
the decision was made to go out on dry settings.
I made a good start and went up the inside of Chris Needham for 2nd place but he
fought back and passed me again and then went past Alex on the next corner to take
the lead.
I stayed with the front 2 for a while but was not sure how much grip there was so i
lost a bit of ground to them. However as the tyres started to get up to temperature I
was able to start pushing harder and the gap closed down to a few seconds.
Whilst turning right towards the bomb hole corner I suddenly saw Alex Craven had
spun again and was across the circuit. I managed to drive around him and get back
into the rhythm again and close the gap between me and Chris.
With about 5 minutes to go I had caught him and was in his slip stream going down
Rabbits straight, I tried to go down the inside but he closed the door on me so I went
down the outside.
This put him off line which aloud me to go wide for the long right hander towards the
Curve but I went about 6 inches to deep into the corner which was still
damp which lost me about 1 second. Also Alex had caught me and was trying to pass
me as well but I was unaware that he had a 10 second penalty to not obeying the track
circuit rules.
We went over the line separated by 0.9 seconds.

Another 2nd and a hard fought race. Roll on BrandsHatch in 2 weeks when I will be
looking for my first victory