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Snetterton 200 - MSVT SuperCup + EnduroKA - 25th-26th June 2021

Snetterton 200 - MSVT SuperCup + EnduroKA - 25th-26th June 2021

With 2 weeks since our disaster at Castle Combe in the MSV Trackday Championship, which you can read about HERE, we made another 3 hour trip down South for the MSVT SuperCup. Snetterton has always been a bogey track for us, both with the Ibiza and Golf. We have never really had a decent result here, mainly through mechanical issues.

Below is the layout of the Snetterton 200 Circuit:

I decided to also do the EnduroKAs with Adam and Mark from IP Racing. Pete was in again, but Ryan wanted to sit this one out. Ollie was supposed to be doing it as well, but had to pull out at the last minute. This meant we had 4 drivers for 2 cars, not ideal in a 12 hour race! I was happy to jump between 2 cars for my stints (ensuring there was an hours rest between each one) and so was Adam, but we still ideally needed a 5th. On the Tuesday before the race weekend, Freddie joined to team!
If we were just doing the KAs, it would have been a pretty straightforward weekend, but with the SuperCup thrown in, I was in and out of the Golf and KA all Saturday!

EnduroKA Practice

The 45 minute Practice session in the morning was a good time for me and Freddie to get our eyes in. As Adam, Mark and Pete had been testing all Friday, they decided to have a nice lie in and leave it to us.
Freddie did a handful of laps, then came in for me to have a go, as I could not do the full session, with the SuperCup Quali being right after. It was the first time I had driven the 63 car, so I took it a little easy, but braking for Murrays the back end snapped, sending me sideways over the inside sausage kerb. In most cars this would have at worst damaged he wheels or suspension. In the KA, things escalated quickly:


No video unfortunately. It was a practice session, nothing was going to happen...

Supercup Qualifying

So after being upside down in a KA, I had to get my head back into the game and take over from Ryan in the Golf after he put in a few quick laps.
We were comfortably 1st in class and ahead of quite a few Class S cars as well, so he pitted to let me jump in, and hopefully complete my first laps of Snetterton this year without ending up on the roof again!
Immediately I was into clear air and decided to push, forgetting about my barrel roll less than 30 minutes before. The car felt good and I shaved a second off Ryan's time on my first flying lap, then managed to knock another 1.3s off that before pitting again to check the temps and pressures.
We decided to go out again for another few laps, and I could only better the lap by 0.016s. This put us 2nd overall, right until the Newman / Smith SuperCopa (incorrectly listed as a Fiesta) pipped us on the last lap, demoting us to 3rd.

Everyone seemed to be improving their times with 2nd, 3rd and 4th being decided on the very last lap. Darren Goes did his lap in the first 5 minutes, then watched everyone else fail to beat him. Not sure if that was pure confidence or he had issues with the car.


A video comparison of our laps is below:

Supercup Race

With four RWD cars behind, Ryan was expecting to be swamped. As the cars did their Green Flag lap and lined up, Gary Burstow in the E46 M3, our closest Class A rival back in 8th had a problem, and was pushed off the track by the marshals. This caused a delayed start and a 2nd Green Flag Lap.

The full race video is below (or you can skip to the blog which has the race highlights in it). I've done a quick rundown of what went on during the race as well, for those that want to have a bit of a read!


Ryan kept his cool and with the 5 second board shown, he bit the clutch and waited for the lights to go out!
The two Leons hesitated, and Ryan had to back off to avoid hitting them, which allowed Nick in the 3rd Leon to get his nose in front to the left, which Steve Hewson in the Porsche Cayman rocketed down the right hand side, and made it into the lead. Not bad from 5th on the grid!
Ryan kept his cool and on the inside line at Richies, was back ahead and in 4th place. Braking into the Wilson Hairpin, Ryan had more confidence on the brakes and jumped back to 3rd.
It was all to no avail as the long Bentley Straight allowed the SuperCopas, with 40whp more than the Golf to reel him in and get ahead.
The Golf was strong in the twisties and under braking, so they did not get away too easily for the first few laps. It helped that Steve in the Porsche was defending hard in front, keeping everyone bunched up, except Darren, who had disappeared up the road to race on his own!
4 Laps in, the Newman / Smith Leon tried to go around the outside at Corum, a bold move, not helped by all the dirt and marbles from previous sessions. He locked up and almost collected Steve! Slowing down to avoid this meant that the Orange M3 of the Seal brothers caught up and was able to make a pass down the pit straight. While Ryan was tussling when them, Callum in the pink E46 was hot on his tail as well, and he made a move down the Bentley Straight.
The Porsche continued to be the cork in the bottle until a few laps later, the Orange BMW went to lap a Class B Porsche Boxster, locked up and they came together. He managed to stay in front until the straight when clearly there was an issue that required a trip to the pits.
After a few more laps, Ryan sent it down the inside of the Cayman into the Wilson Hairpin, quickly made a gap and got on the back of Callum again.
They both pitted at the same time for Ryan to hand it over to me.


We had a stop time that was 6s too slow as the car refused to go into 1st gear, so it looks like our issue from Silverstone was back.
I came out in clear air, and Callum had a slower stop, so came out well behind even though he was first in the pits. I put in some decent laps but could not get anywhere near Ryan's best of a 1:21.719. I guess when he was in the heat of battle, he was pushing harder.
It was a lonely race for me really, with no one to battle with, so I concentrated on staying on the track (and all 4 wheels!) to bring the car home.
On the last lap of the race I passed Michael in the Ibiza on the Bentley Straight, he was billowing black smoke, a sure sign of a leaky boost pipe.
So this meant we were P4 overall and P1 in Class! There were only 4 in our class this weekend, which was a shame. Gary never started and Roger retired after 6 laps, so our battle was with the Class S cars again, we beat 3 of them so we are happy with that.
The boost pipe issue cost Michael 3rd position, so no trophy for him unfortunately. He was pretty gutted about it, but had driven faultlessly throughout the race so should not beat himself up about it!


I'd spent all my stint trying to get close to Ryan's fastest lap, not realising that it was 1.2s quicker than his next nearest time, so I was not really off his pace. We were both around the high 1:22s so the car was pretty consistent even in the hot weather. It is easy to overheat the tyres at Snetterton with the long, fast corners.


25 more points in the bag puts us solidly in the lead of Class A, and still 3rd overall. Our goal is to stay there for the rest of the season. I think beating the top 2 Class S cars over the season is going to be next to impossible unless they have a couple of bad results in the next 3 rounds.


Thanks to Paul, Toby and Mathisse for their help this weekend on the car, and their preparation running up to the event. At least Snetterton has not been a complete nightmare for us this weekend!
So with a few things to fix on the car, and only 2 weeks to do it before Cadwell, we have to get cracking! At least we are not driving 3 hours each way this time, so it should make for a more enjoyable weekend all round!

EnduroKA Qualifying

With my little roll, we were on the back foot for Qualifying in car 63. Jay and Tony pulled out all the stops to get the car back together in time. The main issue we were having was sourcing a windscreen. I went hunting around the paddock! The previous day the guys at Shine Automotive had rolled their KA in the exact same spot, so I asked them who sorted their screen. They suggested someone to fit it, but we still needed a screen! Tony had brought a full donor car, but no screen! Francois, one of the Shine drivers works locally to the track, so set to work. He went above and beyond, finding a mate who had a shell.
Problem was the shell was 30 minutes away in Bury, had no wheels and his mate was setting off to a Stag Do soon and he had the keys to the lockup. Luckily he was passing the track so they grabbed the keys from him, then Adam and Mark went to meet the windscreen guy at the car, he took the screen out and came back to the track to fit it to our car just in time to let the bonding set before qualifying!


With everything last minute, there was no time to check the alignment on the 63 car before it went out, so Freddie and Mark struggled to get us into the top 30, not a usual place for us as we are normally at the pointy end.
Pete was first out in the 36 Car, even though it was showing as me on TSL for some reason. He was struggling with traffic, so when the safety car came out, we pitted and I jumped in to do my 3 laps in that car. I brought it back in for Adam to get us up the order. He put in a 1:42.136 before coming back in to let Pete have another go at some flying laps. He did a 1:42.433, so not an improvement on Adam's time. He then swapped with Adam again after a few quick times were posted by other cars. Adam got close to his time, but could not improve so we were stuck in 5th. Not where any of us wanted to be!
Meanwhile in the 63 car, I did the last stint, and was able to knock a second off Mark's time, a 1:43.866. Still miles off the front running pace, but as much as the car could do while weaving scarily under braking! For some reason it shows on TSL that Adam and Freddie didn't do any laps in the car, but Freddie was in first and Adam jumped in for 3 laps behind the safety car. My lap was only good enough to get us to P25, so after a few corners, I didn't expect to see Adam near the front!


All was not over though, with more dramas in Parc Ferme. The top 15 cars were instructed to remove their gearboxes so the flywheels could be inspected. There had been rumours of cheating in the paddock, with suspicions of teams using a lighter flywheel to improve acceleration. Luckily (or unluckily) we only had 1 car in the top 15, so Pete got his hands dirty and removed the box to show the scrutineers we were not one of the cheats!

Adam was starting in the 36 car in P5, with me way back in P25, it was anyone's guess where we were going to finish up. 12 hours is a long time, and a lot can happen. The race was underway at 09:10 and expected to finish at 21:10, just as the sun was going down!
Adam jumped one place, and me three before we even started, after the CHR HOONIKAN car was disqualified for refusing to remove their gearbox in Parc Ferme, and two others being underweight at the end of Qualifying.
Adam made a storming start, jumping to P1 before the end of the opening lap. I felt like I was making reasonable progress, I think getting up to 16th before someone decided to use me as a brake at Murrays. I dropped back a bit when I was swamped before the Wilson Hairpin. Losing momentum in these cars costs you, especially in the early stages of the race when everyone is bunched together. I'd dropped to P23, a place down from where I started!
Adam was also struggling up front, everyone was driving like it was a sprint race, not a 12 hour endurance, so he dropped back a bit and let everyone else fall over themselves!

1 Hour Down


We decided to split the strategy, so I pitted after ~1:20 to get Freddie in the car, hopefully out of the chaos I was in!
This put us out of sync with our competitors, who went long on their first stints, so we dropped back to 26th at the 2hr mark.
Adam had made his escape and in the 36 car we were 7.8s in the lead from Octane Junkies at this stage.

2 Hours Down


Pete took over the 36 car and was straight on the pace, but a few laps in, disaster struck! He went for 3rd gear and it was not there! After a bit of messing around, he found a gear (we think it was 4th!) and made it back to the pits.
At first we thought it was a linkage issue, related to the box being removed the night before, but it was not a quick fix. The box would be coming out again for the 2nd time in 24hrs. However this time, we were losing time for every minute the car was in the garage!
Freddie put in a great stint in the 63 car, with us showing in 3rd by the 3hr mark! He was fast, consistent and kept it clean throughout.
The 36 car was still in the garage and dead last.

3 Hours Down


With the pack still tight, and a loss of 3 - 4 laps per pit stop, Freddie handed over to Mark a few hours later, which dropped us down to 17th.
The 36 car was back out of the pits, with Jay and Tony, swapping the box in less than an hour. We had lost around 37 laps during this time, which means we had no chance of a good result.

4 Hours Down


Mark plugged away and we crept back up to 9th with 5 hours gone. He was concerned about his pace, but everyone in the mid pack seemed to be struggling at the time.

5 Hours Down


The order shuffled around a bit more as we all pitted between 5 and 6 hours, dropping us to 10th. Adam took over from Mark, hoping to improve on Freddie's time, but he couldn't.

6 Hours Down


We were back to 9th as we ticked past the 7 hour mark. Freddie was getting ready to go back in the car for another 2hr+ stint.

7 Hours Down


The stop dropped us back to 11th, but with others ahead still a pitstop down on us. We were also analysing fuel usage and there was a remove chance those who were on the same number of stops as us might need to make another, since the cars can run at full speed for between 2:10 and 2:20 on a full tank. Some of the teams had 4:40 to go and only 1 stop left. It was going to be tight for them for sure!

8 Hours Down


Freddie was banging in more great laps, even in traffic, getting us up to 7th with only 3 hours to go. We were looking at the pits and it was looking like a top 5 finish was on the cards!

9 Hours Down


With some extra fuel from nowhere, Freddie was able to stretch his stint well past the 2hr mark, which was perfect for our strategy, as we wanted to make sure we had plenty of fuel left in the final stint. This meant we were up to 4th, and with 2hrs left on the clock, the final stint would have more than enough to get to the end.

10 Hours Down


I jumped in the car with 1:50 to go, we lost 3 laps in the pitstop, but didn't drop a position as the teams closest to us must have pitted at a similar time. We were still in 4th, but a podium was possible if any of the top 3 had an issue or needed to do a stop to refuel as we suspected they might.

11 Hours Down


It was not meant to be, a few late safety cars for long periods meant that even if the front runners were struggling with fuel levels, they were able to cruise around, counting down the clock while using the minimal amount of fuel.
So we finished 4th, which I think is still an incredible result considering the car was upside down and needed major repairs just before qualifying!
As a consolation, Adam's fastest lap had stuck right from the 2nd hour, and he went out late in the race and knocked another 10th of a second off it for good measure, just to prove we would have been up there had we not suffered the gearbox failure so early on.


There is a VLOG of the full weekend below. No KA On Board Footage unfortunately (or fortunately, it is more interesting to drive than it is to watch!)


Thanks again Jay, Tony and Francois. Without them working relentlessly to get the car ready for qualifying, we would not have been in a position to even start the race! Looking forward to Oulton Park in August for a 5 hour race after some chaos in the Golf!
James came down with me for the weekend to be Chief Refueler and did a great job! Between Adam, Mark, Pete and Freddie, the other drivers did exactly what was required to get a great result, just the racing Gods conspired against us to prevent us from two podiums like we did at Donington!


Photos courtesy of Nick of NE Sports Photography and MSV.

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02 07 2021

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