Snetterton - 22 August 2009

SNETTERTON RACE REPORT

Endurance racing is not for the faint of heart – it’s a gruelling challenge demanding total commitment, concentration and competitiveness from drivers. In the UK, the SPEED Series provides drivers with that challenge and none more so than with the 6 hour marathon on the calendar that was held at Snetterton on 22nd August. It was disappointing therefore that the grid was not as large as expected but those 27 drivers that did accept the challenge, showed great support of the fledgling SPEED Series and a bucket load of true grit to tackle the race and put on a superb display of endurance race driving.

On the back row of the grid after qualifying were Satellite Racing’s Norma (Burrick/Decroos/Desschans) and the Chad Racing prepared Kia Silhouette car, a regular in the Belgium touring car championship and competing in the C3 invitation category and driven by Iain Dockerill and Piers Masarati. The Kia entry was to provide an interesting trial of GT-type cars running in the SPEED Series pack and, despite some reservations prior to the race, the Chad Racing drivers and team handled themselves with great professionalism both on and off track to prove that future involvement of GT cars on the SPEED grid would certainly work and can provide spectators and drivers with an even more authentic Le mans-style experience. The Kia had qualified 5th fastest on the grid but elected to start at the back to ensure that the SPEED regulars were not held up in the early stages. After 6 hours and 11 pit stops, the car finished in 7th place.

Iain Dockerill: “Towards the end we were looking for excuses to come into the pits, we were so exhausted. The car is very tiring to drive, especially over this length of race but it was a good test of the team and the machine.”

Satellite Racing were one of the four 3-driver teams taking part with Vincent Desschans at the wheel for the start of the race but it was Decroos that showed strongest over the race, claiming afterwards that he felt he had finally worked out how to drive the car by the end of the race. Burrick was going steady until an incident with the Jota dented his car and his confidence and he handed driving duties over to his teammates for the remainder of the event. Satellite have finished all events in SPEED this season though and, despite some heavy modifications made to the car, they came home in 9th. The team was also the recipient of the Turtle Wax Ice Most Polished Performance Award given by the series partner, Turtle Wax, for the best turned out car.

On row 5, Rick Johnson, a second winner of the Mike Bohling award which funds graduates from the Sports 2000 series to take part in SPEED was taking part in the Atkins Motorsport Juno (Atkins/Rigby/Johnson) and he experienced a baptism of fire of sorts alongside his team mates coming home in 8th place at the end of 6 hours. The team did a great job despite being in an ageing car; a broken drive shaft and brake calliper were just two issues that the Phil Williams-prepared machine faced during the race. Phil was awarded the Makita Mechanic of the Meeting Award for his team’s great efforts to keep the drivers in the race.

IF Motorsport’s Ligier (Adcock/Vignali) had started alongside Atkins Motorsport after suffering some electrical problems during testing and qualifying but their race was to see a dramatic change in fortunes as the pairing, so successful at the first round at Anglesey with a 3rd placed finish repeated the feat, finishing just 5 laps behind the eventual winner. This is even more impressive given that neither of the drivers is a professional racer unlike many of their contemporaries on the grid and both should be congratulated.

Despite a heavy crash in testing on Friday, the Bernans/Garofall/Bialan partnership and the Counter Solutions Racing Team were on the grid with a reserve Juno, alongside HOF Racing’s Ligier (Simmonds/Hall/Kane). Gary Kane was a new face in the SPEED paddock and would help HOF Racing to their first finish of the season in 6th place come the end of the day. The Counter Solutions team has been on top of the podium at two races this season, with Rob Garofall leading the 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona Driver Challenge presented by Sunoco competition which could net him a drive in the Daytona 24 hour race. A transponder malfunction put the car almost a second faster than the rest of the field after qualifying but, sadly for Garofall, the timekeepers finally figured out the problem and the car qualified over 2 seconds down on the pole car. During the race, Bialan and co improved on their qualifying, despite a coming together with the Jota, and would finish a commendable 4th overall, a result which leaves the #51 car at the top of the PIF scores with one round remaining.

Row 3 saw the TFL Racing Juno SSE (Reader/Fennymore) alongside RLR MSport’s #21 Ligier (Bouzouba/Bennett). The Ligier drivers, returning to the pack for the first time since the event at Spa early in the season, made good progress in the early stages and the car ran in fourth place, ahead of its sister #99 car for a period, and all three ran line astern on track for a number of laps before a 27 minute pit stop to remedy gear shift problems after 102 laps effectively ruled the #21 car out of the running. Further gearbox issues and a suspension failure saw the car retire in the fourth hour.

The TFL car progressed steadily though and, already a visitor to the podium in SPEED in August at Brands Hatch, the team collected another second place finish at Snetterton, coming home just three laps behind the winner.

Behind the front two were Spa winners RLR Msport’s #99 Ligier JS49 (Gates/Dunn) sat alongside the Norma M20F (Rihon/Padmore) on near identical qualifying times. Nick Padmore started the Norma, the same car that had suffered a heavy impact at Brands Hatch just a fortnight before. He made a great start, getting past the Pilbeam and the #99 car in the early stages and set about trying to catch the initial leader, Sam Hancock before handing over to Rihon who in turn put in some consistent lap times and would bring the car home in 5th position.

Qualifying saw the JOTA Sport Ligier (Hancock/Dolan) take pole, four tenths ahead of the Lanan Racing Pilbeam (Charveriat/Hollings). Jota have shown great outright speed at every event this season but had yet to get that maiden win despite having poles and leading large segments of the races, whilst Lanan, were looking to improve on the promising showing they made at the previous round at Brands Hatch.

Ultimately neither was able to convert that qualifying position. Sam Hancock started in the #47 Ligier and streaked away from the pack, opening up a lead of over 8 seconds after just 18 laps and setting fastest lap in the process. After the pit stops Simon Dolan was also running well but Jota’s bad luck continued when, later in the race he was involved in a couple of racing incidents, and the ensuing damaged sustained when the car hit first the Satellite Racing Norma and later the Counter Solutions Juno put the team out after some 200 laps.

The Lanan Pilbeam was itself a leader for more than 20 laps but was forced to retire with a damaged chassis after 189 laps of racing. It was a bitter disappointment for Charveriat who had been leading well at Brands before a driver error put him out of contention.

But it was the #99 car of Gates/Dunn that triumphed ultimately. Another faultless performance from the RLR MSport team similar to that of the Spa victory took the team onto the top step of the podium for the second time this season and moved them up to second in the PIF table.

Congratulations to all teams, drivers and manufacturers that took part. The final round of the series is at Silverstone on 10th October where a much larger entry is expected. Initial responses from competitors indicate a 20+ car grid.