Following on from Round 3 of the 750MC Club Enduro Championship at Spa in the Area Motorsport Golf GTI, where we also competed in the 25hr FunCup Race, I had just got back from the C1 24hr in Portimao a few days before travelling to Snetterton for Round 4. Luckily the guys had a decent break and plenty of time to prepare the cars.
You can read about the exploits in Spa by clicking the link below.

We are back Snetterton again on the 300 Layout, 4 weeks since we did pretty well here for the Turismo-X Racing Championship.
This time however would be a little different, with a 3 hour (180 minute) race and two mandatory 3 minute (stationary) pit stops to be taken after 30 minutes and before the last 15. With our success at Spa, I would need to serve a 20 second longer stop in the first time in the pits.
Adam was not able to make this round, so to help Ryan out, our friend DannyDC2 has stepped in to be the other nut behind the wheel for the weekend. He would do the middle stint all being well. Check out his YouTube channel for some great, real life content, no YouTube fake BS!

Below is the layout of the Snetterton 300 Circuit:

For the ClubEnduro, the Golf would be running in Class B, which is 240bhp/tonne without the driver which means we are at similar power to Class A for Turismo-X (and the SuperCup last year), ~270bhp at the flywheel as Diesels have a 1.05 power multiplier, so theoretically we can only have ~228bhp/tonne. The TT was going into Class A, which is 300bhp/tonne.
The 750MC uses TSL for timing at some rounds, but also TheResultsLive.co.uk for others, so the results can be found using TRL link for this round.

Full Race Day Vlog

We have a full Vlog from the weekend, with snippets of the race:

Qualifying

As always the British weather cannot be trusted, and the forecast was changing constantly in the week running up to this. It was either going to be a monsoon or glorious when I checked periodically, then the day before, it looked like patches of light rain right at race time.
When we woke up on Sunday morning, ready for Qualifying at 09:50, we were greeted with a fully damp and greasy pitlane and light rain. So it was neither wet or dry tyres. We opted to stay on the Yokohama A052s, as we have found them to be pretty good in all but monsoon conditions, especially when they are pretty new. When we made it to the assembly area, it was clearly the correct choice, as only a couple of cars were on wets.
My first few laps felt OK, but I didn't have any of my championship rivals near to me to gauge how they were doing. I had lost radio coms with the pits in the assembly area so they could not keep me updated on position either. As I was improving every lap (then losing it to traffic before the end in some cases!) I stayed out for 7 laps then came in for the tyre pressures checking.
I asked Mathisse where I was, and he said 5th overall and 1st in class! I was shocked but knowing I could go quicker still, we dropped the pressures a little and went back out for what was going to be my last flying lap before the chequered flag would be waved.
Meanwhile Ryan was struggling in the TT. The windscreen had steamed up and he couldn't reach the switch to turn on the heater! They swapped to the wet tyres and Ryan went back out, but it was clear there would not be enough time for Danny to get a lap in so he pitted again, they swapped and Danny went out for his first ever laps in the TT, wet or dry! He did pretty well considering, with his best being a 2:39.70 on his 3rd and final flying lap. Based on feedback from the Area guys, and how the A052s felt, wet tyres were the wrong choice. This put them P17.
My final lap was looking really good, but then right at the end I lost 0.8s due to traffic, so had to settle with a 2:34.32 instead of what was looking like a 2:33.5. This put me in P7 overall and P2 in class, just behind Chris Freeman in Area Golf we drove at Spa! Even if I had done the 2:33.5 I would not have beat the 2:33.17 he set near the end, or the 2:33.31 in the middle of the session.

As normal, we all went through Parc Ferme to be weighed and checked which is usually pretty straightforward. We'd had issues with the ride height at the first ClubEnduro round as the front splitter was supposedly too low. A big debate ensued as the 'flat-patch' was not flat there. This time it failed by around 2mm on the back drivers corner. We tested in several places and it would not clear. It was not looking good. We had around an hour to wait to see what the decision would be, and after a quick meeting, we were informed of the below:

So after outperforming most of the much faster cars in tricky conditions, it was to the back of the grid! If we are looking for positives, this did mean the TT was bumped up to 14th as there were 4 of us that failed!

You can see that Ryan never got a flying lap in, the 2:49.29 was set from the pit exit. Danny was only given three flying laps to get used to a wet Snetterton (he'd been here 3 weekends on the bounce, all perfectly dry!) and a feel for the TT he had not sat in until that morning! Compared to the top guys in Class A, they had some way to go if it stayed wet.

Freeman clearly had the confidence immediately to get out and push hard. I was on brand new tyres so needed to give them a few laps to get rid of the moulding oils. In the middle of the stint, traffic was more of a problem, as it is much harder to make a clean pass in these conditions without taking too much of a risk.

Qualifying Laps

Our 'fastest' laps are shown below, watch my delta disappear at Coram!

Race

The whole race was Live Streamed by the guys at AlphaLive which you can see below:

Ryan & Danny's Race

Ryan made a really good start, jumping from 14th to 9th before the end of lap 1! Another two places were gained on the next lap before the #69 E46 M3 of Hampson and Schulz that had started way down in 27th pushed it's way past!
He bounced between 11th and 7th overall for the first hour, then a safety car sent most of the field in for their first stop. We had said we would prioritise the Golf over the TT and since it was pretty busy in the pitlane, Ryan stayed out and took over the lead of the race!
It stayed this way for another 20 minutes, then the fuel level was looking a bit low and no sign of another safety car, so the guys pulled him in under Green Flag conditions to swap with Danny, change the tyres and drop some more fuel in.

Danny was a little steady getting into the car (to put it politely!) and the fuel was refusing to go in (we later found the breather to be full of fuel!). This meant the stop was over a minute slower than it should have been, maybe closer to two. So that was a lap lost. Then two laps later, the safety car came out AGAIN! If only they had waited it would have been a much more efficient stop!
Once the race got back to normal pace, Danny was right on the money, into the 2:08s then the 2:07s. He got into a great battle with the RS3 TCR that lasted multiple laps. That car ended up on the Podium so it would have been a different story had the strategy worked out a bit better for them!
Another unscheduled stop then had to happen as the car seemed to be drinking fuel, and a surge at the final corner confirmed that he was running too low. Luckily the guys were not far off ready for him, but it was still a longer stop due to the refuelling speed, so he lost at least another lap or two, and it was under green again, just before a safety car! You could not write it!
Eventually Danny brought the car home in P14, right where they started. A video of their full race is below:

Scott Race

The disqualification and starting at the back was changed to a pitlane start with no explanation. This meant we would also not be able to do the green flag lap to warm the brakes, tyres and fluids. Not ideal! It also limited the number of places I could gain at the start, as normally when the red lights go out, you can overtake and realistically I would be able to take a handful of cars before turn 1. From the pitlane that was going to be more difficult as we needed to wait until they passed us to be released!
I had a Class A TCR in front, then another behind along with the Holden Commodore, so they were going to disappear into the pack well before I caught up! Luckily the marshal at the end was kind and set us off as early as he could, but it was still the infield before I could make up any places!
By the end of Lap 1 I was up to 40th, Lap 2 I gained another ten places to 30th, but then it was getting more difficult, lap 3 was 26th, then 24th before I had a massive gap to make up. I could see that the guys the race was actually against (the Area Golfs and the Cayman) were all battling, and I seemed to be gaining a small amount, or at least maintaining the gap.
I was really struggling with surge at ~3000rpm coming out of the corners, which was where it needed to be for a good exit. This meant I had to adapt by dropping to a lower gear, which hurt my corner entry and exit way more than I would have wanted. I had a lot to make up, as I was already over 45s behind the Class B leading Cayman by 30 minutes in.

I ended up in no mans land for most of the stint, and had no coms with Mathisse. All I could do was drive as fast as possible, stay out of trouble and hopefully the race would come to me.
Eventually it was clear that my pace was not the same as the guys in front, as they started to creep away from the markers I was using in my peripherals to gauge the pace vs the Golfs and Cayman. I did not give up, as I knew the Golf has never been the fastest over a lap, and with two pitstops, anything could happen!
After 28 laps and just over an hour, I was in 13th position and the safety car was out. It was not quite sure why as there was no clear incident on track, but the orange BMW in front was driving super slow. It was so bad I was pretty tempted to abort the stop and come round next time, but followed him into the pits, where he did less than 30kph (vs the 50kph limit) then stopped, blocking the whole lane! It was chaos in front of the garages, with no room for me to pull into our box. The guys quickly decided to run to the end of the pitlane and refuel me there.
20L in the car and a litre of water in me, I was sent back out with a perfect stop, the 20s penalty from my 2nd place at Spa giving us more breathing room that required. The safety car had peeled in part way through my stop, so my Class B competition got the jump, as they did most of their pit stop under full safety.

Some more frustrating driving on my own more or less ensued for around 30 minutes, when another safety car brought all my rivals into the pits again.
This time it was not quite as chaotic and our stop went really well, no fuel this time, just a pair of front tyres and I was on my way. The safety car period was much longer, but I missed the train and came out just behind it. I had lost another lap to the Class B cars. How frustrating!
I came out with a goal, I could see the blue Ginetta in our class, which was currently 5th in class. I needed to hunt him down. They had lost out in the safety car also, so it was probably the only other Class B car I had a chance of catching under pure pace.
A few laps in I caught up, and we were nose to tail. Into the Bomb Hole he slowed right down, and we had a little touch. I kept the pressure on for the rest of the lap and into the next, before he made a mistake at Williams and I was able to get through.
A few more laps of frustration at the lack of pace, I was caught by the Area TCR who had dragged Luke Handley in the Green Area Golf GTI along with him. This was for him to lap me, which was pretty embarrassing, but I had lost out so much in the safety cars, the lack of pace meant this far into the race he was able to close the gap up and make the pass.
I could see that it would not hurt his race if we had a bit of a battle, so I did my best to keep him behind for as long as possible. I was losing out mainly in the slow speed corners, where I needed to go down to 2nd instead of leaving it in 3rd, due to the surge. Eventually he got through and pulled a decent gap.
A couple of laps later, a safety car brought me right onto Luke's bumper, and at the restart, I timed it perfectly to pass him on the control line and put another three cars between us. It took him another lap and half to get through them and repass me on the straight.
More lonely racing the clock from here until the TCRs in 3rd, 4th and 5th caught me up and passed. I managed to keep up with them as they battled, but the straight line speed was too much and they eventually disappeared into the distance.
A bad crash between the Ginetta and Boxster brought out the final safety car of the race, and it was called around 10 minutes early as it was going to take some clearing up.
The dash showed 48 litres of fuel still left in the tank. Since we only put 20L in, with the new tank, it would have done the full 3 hours race without refuelling! (we drained the tank when we got back and there was actually 37 litres in, so without a refuel we would have finished with 17L).
My full race is shown below:

So I finished P13 which was 5th in Class, and the TT finished just behind me in P14 (right where they started!) which was P9 in Class A.
We had lost so much time with our stops, the TT lost at least 3 laps just in the pits and the Golf at least 2 to the safety car, which would have put us well into the top 10 for both cars.

In the battles and with traffic, Ryan was mainly in the 2:08s and 2:07s. This was still a fair way off Rob and Carl in the Area TCR, but closer towards the guys who finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Danny did great considering it was his first time in the car, he was immediately in the 2:08s and 2:07s, and set the fastest lap of the race for the TT whilst battling the RS3!

My laptimes were woeful. With the heavy fuel load, I was struggling to dip into the 2:11s, whereas my competition were in the 2:10s pretty quickly. I hoped it would improve as the fuel level dropped, but it did not happen. The best Class B lap was a 2:08.51 by the Cayman, with Freeman a tenth behind that. Luke Handley was not far behind with a 2:08.96. Mine was a 2:10.24 so we are ~1.75s off the pace.

Fastest Laps

Our fastest race laps are below:

It was a race to forget really. P5 in class was a good comeback, but the lack of pace compared to the other guys was pretty frustrating, and with only 3 weeks to go until the next round at Silverstone, we need to find some time quickly, and we don't have much time to test. If I had started in the position I qualified, it might have been a different race, but I can't help but think 5th in Class was realistically my pace this weekend. If we are looking for positives, both cars had zero mechanical issues, which for their first 3 hour race is pretty good.
The guys worked flat out in the runup to this, and during the whole weekend. We didn't let the Quali DQ stop us pushing all the way through. Maybe with a bit more luck with the safety cars, we would have been in a better position!
The 750MC have not released the championship standings, but I am still in 3rd position based on my calcs, and with dropped scores, only 1 point ahead of Freeman in the Golf and the Cayman! Jon Packer is 5 points ahead and Luke Handley a massive 11 points. I've got some catching up to do!

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Elsey Motorsport Photography and 750MC

All the details and dates for future races we are entering can be found on the Darkside Motorsport Page.