Round 7 - Snetterton 300 (4 hrs)

TDI Classification

Snetteton 300 circuit was the venue for the penultimate UK round of the Fun Cup championship, with a four hour race.

In car 207 Spirit Fitness/Team O’Br, the team’s mechanics Jason and Luke worked tirelessly to completely rebuild the car, following a crash at Brands Hatch. Due to gearbox issues, they managed only forty minutes testing, but the car felt great! Qualifying went well with Eugene O’Brien posting the fastest lap, but the random grid draw placed them last on the grid.

Team Honeywell’s Neil Plimmer, drawn on pole position, broke a drive shaft as the red lights went out and found himself going absolutely nowhere! Jason Simon, taking the first stint for car 207, skilfully avoided the carnage that followed, as drivers tried to avoid the stationary car and worked his way up the field to 7th. O’Brien pushed on in wet conditions, to hand over to Burton in 2nd place.

The team held this position for the rest of the race and with one hour to go and a safety car which closed the pack, they knew they had a great chance of taking victory. With some stunning laps, O’Brien caught and passed the leading ECO Racing car with ten laps to go.

Meanwhile, in car 209, Eco Racing were still on a high from their podium at Brands Hatch and had high hopes for Snetterton. Paul Abraham partnered sportscar racer and friend Tom Mills, as regular co-driver Charlie Burt was unavailable.

Mills drove brilliantly and they we were running a compromised set up after reliable information regarding the rain! A victory was looking highly likely with a forty second lead, which was sadly ruined by the safety car, combined with O’Brien’s blistering laps.

Paul Abraham, said: “We enjoyed every minute. It wasn't a trouble free weekend for us, but the team did an outstanding job, we can't wait for Oulton and can’t believe it’s the last race of the season!”

Scarab Racing were feeling confident going into this round after a strong showing and turn around in form at the last round.

In the random draw for grid position their hearts sank when they were faced with starting 4th from the back of the grid, with many of the strong TDI teams at the front.

Stephen Johansen had a blistering start, passing between the two cars in front before they had even moved, but was immediately faced with the start line incident involving at least four of the cars from the front rows of the grid. Johansen managed to navigate a way through the carnage, with shards of fibre glass raining down and had moved up twelve places to 10th by the first corner, until the safety car was released. However, great progress was made in this stint and the car pitted in 4th position for the first pit stop.

Team mate, Bram de Groot, then took over and ran a fast and consistent pace to the next stop, keeping the 4th place secure. Scarab Racing then set about catching the Track Torque car 211 which was running 3rd and ended up having a fantastic, clean battle, running side by side and passing them for the 3rd place.

This 3rd place looked in jeopardy when the team were given a “stop and go” penalty for a safety car restart infringement, just before the last pit stop. There was no need to worry though, as de Groot took over for the last stint and pulled a sizable gap over the 211 car, keeping the 3rd place secure.

Steven Johansen, said: “Scarab Racing would like to thank Phill de-Groot King from trackcars4hire.co.uk for the excellent preparation and race support. Plus, the hard working team of Marty, Jim, Simon, Edd, Allan and Brian.”

The fastest lap was a 2:17.789, set by Team O’Br/Spirit Fitness in car 207.

Petrol Classification

The victors of the petrol class was the delighted Beacon Racing team of Alan and Rory Brown, with Jonathan Cobb, in car 49.

They had a huge amount of problems with the car at the previous round, so were not optimistic for Snetterton. The team felt the car handled well, but lacked straight line speed and reliability. For this round, the Beacon team had made a great deal of progress. They had an oil cooler split in qualifying and lost some time in the pit stops during the race, trying to get the oil level right. However, other than that, they felt that the car ran well.

The race was described by the team as “epic”. They had a good draw on the grid, so escaped the mayhem at the start and were 2nd at the end of the first stint. They ran well in the wet in the 2^nd stint and built up a lead, which they retained until the end of the 4^th stint. They lost a bit of time because of an oil problem and the stiff competition of Porsche Byfleet had started to really motor when the track dried.

So, by the beginning of the 6th stint they were in 3rd, but the first three cars were nose to tail! Rory Brown moved into 2nd immediately and so, began a thirty five minute battle with Byfleet for the ead. Half way through he had almost given up, as Byfleet was being driven like a demon and had the edge in straight line speed.

Rory Brown then benefited from some cars in front of Byfleet and running slower and managed to pass at Corum with about five laps to go. On the penultimate lap, he was blocked by a TDl and Byfleet took advantage of a tow, passing Rory Brown at the end of the main straight. But, on the last lap Rory Brown pulled alongside Byfleet entering Agostini and managed to take advantage of a TDI in between them to stay ahead for the last couple of bends!

Alan Brown, said: “It was a fabulous day for us, enhanced by the great commentary in the final stint and the great sportsmanship and camaraderie amongst the petrol crews”.

It was Scott Kavanagh, John Halestrap and Pete James who made up the Porsche Byfleet team in car 105 and took the 2nd step of the podium.

Ian Dockerill and son Christopher Dockerill celebrated their first UK Fun Cup podium together, finishing in 3rd for Chad racing.

Porsche Byfleet set the fastest lap in car 105, with a 2:22.251.