Snetterton V de V UK

Last weekend I debuted in the V de V UK series at Snetterton in Norfolk driving for the Juno works team. I had eyed the series last year and had briefly tested the Juno SSE at Donington in 2007.

The race was a monster 6 hour enduro and I was driving with two others, Dave Scott and Mark Coleing both of whom had never driven a sports prototype previously so it was definitely a toe in the water exercise.

The Juno is one of four manufacturers in the series and whilst probably not the fastest is certainly the most reliable. Powered by a Honda Civic type R engine it produces 250bhp and had a delightful sequential 6 speed gearbox operated with formula 1 style paddles mounted behind the steering wheel. The car is fast, lapping Snetterton in 1 minute 8 seconds although quite tiring to drive, heavy steering courtesy of all that down force, substantial g-force for the driver to cope with and a brake pedal that needs immense pressure to get the car stopped. I'm still aching writing this on Monday....

I tested the car last on Friday and was the fastest so I was elected to qualify on Saturday. Unfortunately a change was made overnight which didn't work so when I got in the car to qualify I immediately detected a huge amount of turn in understeer. Pitting the team made a minor adjustment which didn't change the car enough so we were on the back row for the race.

At the race commencement I was going to get in the car third and by the time I got in we were into the third hour and I did a longish stint which was punctuated by a rain shower which was interesting on slicks and by a pit call which was an error as we had lost radio communication, well we never really had any to start with. I was consistent in the times and didn't crash or spin so I was satisfied when I handed the car back over to Dave. We had already suffered a puncture early on and suffered another when we were on wets during a sudden downpour, we were dropping away but with other teams suffering their own misfortunes we rose to finish 6th overall by the finish.

All in all a very enjoyable weekend, Juno were very good to work with and if we can do a little testing and improve our strategy and pace a little I think we can get some very good results. I'm already planning on doing the next race at Brands Hatch and we will see how that turns out.

Appreciation then to my Dave and Mark and thanks to the team for running such a reliable car - their catering was good too. McCann Erickson supported the car and my gratitude to them once again.

21st July 2008