11 August 2003

FEELING THE HEAT AT SNETTERTON

Snetterton is a circuit I enjoy and have done well at; my first-ever pole was set here in a Vento and I've had some fabulous dices here too. Clio-wise, however, things are not so clever, with a panel-bashing first meeting here earlier in the year and, coming away on Saturday night with only one seventh place, the going is hard indeed.

Testing proved that we were going to be fighting an uphill battle, with the final session putting me in sixth place. The car was over-steering in the fast corners and the adjustments we made, although making the car better, did not balance the car as I would have preferred it. Qualifying on Friday was incredibly difficult with different track temperatures and a red flag midway through; I was not getting on to the pace at all. Leaving the pits after the green flag was shown I was suffering with a brake problem which were pulling the car to one side, and this was costing me both time and confidence. As it was intermittent it was unsettling both the car and myself. When I finally thought we could go all out for a hot lap a fellow competitor cracked their sump open over the Russell chicane kerb and the resultant oil spill put paid to further improvements in time. Thus 14th position for the start of both races was the disappointing result.

Race one in quite scorching heat was great fun, and I was enjoying some great racing with Julian Griffin as we climbed the field mostly, it has to be said, from others throwing themselves off the circuit. I was clear of Griffin and set to move away when I came across Wilkinson, who had spun at the chicane. He drove straight out on to the circuit right in front of me; I had nowhere to go and hit him with the resultant loss of momentum losing me positions to Griffin and George.

With it all to do again I passed George and was right behind Griffin when the ever-present oversteer caught me out for good when I tried to push too hard through the fast Riches corner… around the back came. With my foot flat on the boards I could not pull it around and went for a dusty flying lesson into the infield. I continued but a puncture pulled me into retire later in the lap. With Griffin finishing sixth I was left to rue what might have been...

The second race was no cooler and we all ensured that we were fully hydrated before belting ourselves into our personal ovens. A good - for once - start made up five places and some strong opening laps put me into a lonely seventh, where I finished. The car had been significantly improved between races and my fastest lap of the meeting was the last lap of the race meeting; if only we could have struck that balance on Thursday.

However, I was pleased that the car was unscathed and that despite the debilitating heat I was absolutely fine and could have happily gone on for another 14 laps…