Time Attack Round 8  Race Report.

Prepared as ever for Time Attack, a last minute nut and bolt check didn’t  reveal anything worrying, although we neglected to get the alignment checked. With the garages reserved for full season entrants. Despite doing 8 of the 9 rounds, we have been classed as an SRE all year (We decided not to run for the championship early on as it was pretty obvious we wouldn’t be in contention for any podiums) We arrived at Snetterton Circuit and setup up camp in the paddock just to the end of the pit garages.

You could argue the Pit Garages are much better, But with COVID restrictions lifted, being in the paddock allows for better interaction with the public. We came suitably prepared with our Marque however!

It’s a double header at Snetterton weekend. Round 8 on the Saturday and Round 9 on the Sunday running alongside the Modified Live show.

This is my first time at Snetterton and despite never driving the circuit I was very much aware that it was a power circuit and that being a lightweight, low power, handling car that we would struggle to competitive this weekend – but that doesn’t stop me from giving it a dam good try does it?

For both days we are on the 200 circuit which is a shame, I had hoped we would switch from the 200 to 300 circuit on either day to switch things up. Sadly not.

Saturday, First session of the day, warm-up session. The weather was looking pretty damp. After ear wigging other drivers, it seemed the consensus was to go out on the Slicks. The circuit wasn’t wet, but very damp. Some small wet patches on the circuit. It felt very greasy/wet and made cornering on the slicks interesting. We most of the 20 minutes session counter steering into corners and learning the circuit overall. We finished with a 1:46.638

2nd Session of the day, Practice. In between now and the first session there had been 2 more sessions of TA Cars and a session of the Civic Cup and hopefully this dried the circuit out – and it did. Grip levels immensely improved we started to push harder. I was given a task by a good friend to remain full throttle from Nelsons, through Bomb Hole and Coram into the brake zone for Murrays. Something that seemed pretty sketchy to start with. Nothing worthy of mentioning. We finished with a 1:37.039, Improving 9 Seconds over this mornings damp conditions.

As the afternoon came, the weather remained overcast and was pretty cold. But remained dry somewhat.

Session 3, Qualifying. Pushing further and further through bomb hole and Coram, But struggling to stick the braking zone into Murrays. I managed to improve to 1:36.481

Session 4, the Final. At this point I was 3+ Seconds from the next position. So instead of feeling down about being last again… I Set myself the goal of setting a sub 1:35.xxx Lap time and unfortunately after some big sends in an effort to get more confidence in improving corner speeds, we ended the session on a 1:36.737.

Tomorrows another day…