Lap records fall at Snetterton

Snetterton 14th April 2002

As all seasoned drivers and supporters know, Snetterton is one of the bleakest tracks on the MMCC circuit. Although initially cold, Sunday 14th April dawned fair and boded well for a good day’s racing. Twenty two drivers arrived to defend their honour, including a new contender in class A, Tim Bryan, who comes to our challenge having driven other V8s in RoadSport challenges in the 1980s. You will be delighted to know that all present welcomed him into the fold in true Morgan style.

Scrutineering passed off painlessly. As Phil Brown’s new overalls passed scrutineering he was allowed out without showing off his underwear. Chris Acklam wowed the pits with his brand new Chasmobile, a stunning Class B spec build in a darker shade of blue than that sported by his rival Peter Horsman. The Orebi Ganns decided to wow the spectators in their road car instead of their race series number and arrived in their splendid new Aero 8 in a rather nice shade of green. This provided the punters with endless photo opportunities and the Morgan nerds with lots of scope for headlight discussions. A new set of twiddly lines had been added to the headlight surround giving it a less cross-eyed effect. Simon was seen hastily locking the Aero 8 when a car-less Matthew Wurr was spied walking around the pits.

Practice was enjoyable on the cloudy/dry track and produced some interesting qualifying times. When Peter Garland found himself behind Keith he thought to check out his rival’s lines, but Keith had other ideas and zoomed off leaving Peter breathing in his exhaust fumes. In his haste to escape from Peter, Keith managed to beat his own lap record by over a second and qualified first on the grid.

Rick was delighted to find that his car was fine, after the disappointment at Donington and despite lots of traffic, found himself second on the grid ahead of Garland by 3/1000th of a second. Next in fourth place and leading class B came Peter Horsman who had also qualified faster than Rick’s lap record, but with a worrying rattle which proved only to be the propshaft hitting the prop shaft cover. James Paterson was 5th in Noddy, who was sporting a borrowed gear box.

Paul Burry, on his first outing this year, led class C in 6th place, and he too was just faster than the lap record set by James. Simon OG, the class C winner at Donington, had been dismayed when Paul had whizzed past him during practice, but managed to qualify in 8th place behind Chris Acklam, who was still exploring his new car’s handling capabilities. Andy Green, who was next on the grid, had the indignity of being towed back to the pits after his car, which had been misfiring, decided to give up and die. Unfortunately, the ECU proved faulty and he was unable to race.

Mary and Jack decided to pre-empt the formalities of practice and spent the time dicing with one another instead of concentrating on the task in hand. So Kelvin was faster than them both, and led the class on the grid, followed by Jack, Mary, Phil Brown, Philip Goddard and the sole representative of Class E, David James, who was also making his debut appearance of the season. But the old lap records set by Peter Horsman and Alan Wickenden for Classes D and E remained unchallenged

Keith, Rick, Peter H and Tim whiled away some of their spare time between the Morgan practice and race by entering the 750 Roadsports qualifying, where the aforementioned first two took the first two places with Peter fourth. Rick was delighted to be under-+ second behind Keith, and Peter was delighted to be behind them and in front of some pretty speedy opposition. Tim was not quite so lucky as he experienced problems with his accelerator, which in turn led to problems with his carburettor, which in turn meant that he was unable to enter either race. He remained philosophical.

Amazingly for a race day, the Morgan race took place before lunch, watched as always at Snetterton by the loyal, local, Norfolk Morgan owners. Keith got off to an awful start which allowed Rick to gain the lead with Peter H forging ahead of Peter G. Rick lost his first place to Keith in the Esses and then set about chasing him for the rest of the race. Needless to say, Garland quickly overtook Horsman down the Revett Straight leaving him in an unassailable 4th position, miles ahead of the rest of class B.

Meanwhile, further down the field, disaster struck at theend of the back straight, when Chris Dady went flying up the inside with smoke coming out of his brakes and with nowhere to go. He mounted Sarge from behind, damaging both cars, and knocking Sarge off the track. Simon OG was also squeezed off the track in the melee and drove off, avoiding waiting bollards as he went, onto the grass. Simon, Chris and Sarge all waited until David James had passed at the back of the field and managed to regain the track from their respective resting places before the race leaders roared around. Chris carried on for two further laps until retiring with a damaged car and a more seriously damaged wrist, which was later diagnosed as broken! At the end of the first lap Simon’s chances of winning Class D for the second race running were seriously undermined. He was third from last, while Sarge was indeed last.

Several other tussles were happening all over the track. Paul Burry was taking advantage of his new rear springs and the handling thereby afforded to hold on to 5th place for a lap until being overtaken firstly by Chris Acklam and then James Paterson. Paterson provided lots of interest to the spectators and commentators alike as a local ‘boy’ James gave Chris no respite the entire race as he attempted every trick in the book to get past him. Chris obviously kept his foot off his new brakes as much as possible, and made the new car so wide that although James seemed anxious to examine Chris’s paintwork in closer detail, he could never quite get past. James later claimed that he was held up by Chris and his desire not to add Windridge blue to his already colourful mount, as he recorded a faster lap time.

Class D drivers were busily fighting amongst themselves with Leigh, Phil Brown and David joining in where appropriate. Leigh was very pleased to have kept them all behind him for the entire race after making a good start and so gaining a good distance advantage. Jack got ahead of Kelvin at the start but was retaken down the straight. Jack then passed Kelvin, who retook Jack as he positioned himself badly when being overtaken by Leigh, thus allowing the flying doctor to pass as well. Jack spent a few laps nipping at Kelvin’s rear, but by the 4th lap Kelvin had established an unassailable lead and Mary started nibbling at Jack. She overtook on the 5th lap and then Jack retook her on the 7th. Mary whipped past Jack down the straights, but on the 8thlap some ungentlemanly behaviour took place when Jack pushed Mary off onto the grass at the bung hole by drifting over, leaving Mary with nowhere else to go. Mary couldn’t quite recover her equilibrium after this loss of time and so finished the race well behind Jack, but well ahead of Phil B, Philip G and David.

At the front the four race leaders kept their places and began to weave through the back markers on the 5th lap. At times Rick seemed to be catching Keith, but Peter G couldn’t find any extra power and began to long for the rain of Donington. Then on the 13th lap Rick’s release bearing on the clutch went and as he began to slow Peter G nipped past to take second place, leaving Rick to coast around for the final two laps.

Keith swept to victory at the close of an exciting 15 lap race and as expected smashed his own lap record by a second. Peter G was second and Rick third, Rick was also faster than the lap record. Peter H came fourth, winning Class B and also breaking the lap record by a second. Chris kept James behind him to the last to take fifth place. Paul Burry took seventh place and Class C, but not the fastest lap, which went to Simon OG. Both contenders took solace in breaking James’s lap record

Simon OG had managed to make up ten places since his off on the first lap and was awarded the ‘Driver of the Day’ champagne (Your scribe wasn’t paying full attention as to the reason for this, and so concluded it was for making up the places and gaining fastest lap, rather than for avoiding crashing into the back of the others at the incident site). The other incident survivor, Sarge, also did well to make up nine places, particularly as his car came away with a hurtie.

Kelvin came in 14th to take Class D and fastest lap but was over a second and a quarter outside the lap record. To popular acclaim David James won Class E, but was also well outside the lap record.

Just to add to the excitement of the day and to gain further racing experiences, Keith and Peter H, as previously mentioned, entered the 750 Roadsports Race. Keith won easily, and Peter, despite losing his clutch, and 4 places, when he nearly retired, made up the places, had an unforced crash and came second. Keith (only) also entered a further Roadsports race and swept to victory in that one too in a manner in which the lap times suggest was comfortable but allowing the second place man a controlled sniff.

Ruth Horsman