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Snetterton
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26th September 2004
Formula Vauxhall Lotus
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This was my second attempt to race in a
Formula Vauxhall Lotus 2 litre car. Co-incidentally, this is the same car I
rented from Top Marx for Brands Hatch in 2002. Then the battery failed on the green
flag lap... We had to run 2
qualifying sessions and 2 races in 1 day, which proved tight to sort out any problems with the car.
Its last outing was at Castle Combe driven by Jurgen
Dramm, in which it had a coming-together with Lee Bennett.
This meeting was hampered by running a
different set of completely knackered tyres each time I went out of the pits,
starting off on very old ARP F3 Avon tyres with no wear indicators left on the
rears, then Bridgestone cross-plies with the cords showing, ending up on
Formula 3 radials borrowed from Larry Jeram Croft! To say I wasn't happy about
this state of affairs is an understatement...
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Qualifying 1
Despite being aware of tyre situation, the team was not
able to get replacements and I didn't have time to get newer tyres fitted when I
arrived at the track, so I went out to qualify on the old ARP F3 Avon tyres. The circuit was quite damp, with very low
grip levels. The car oversteered everywhere, even on the straights when I
applied power. The session ended prematurely by a red flag when Neil
Harrison span and was collected heavily by Steven Griffin.
Considering the state of the tyres and this being my first time in
the car, I was surprised that I had qualified 15th, with 10 drivers
behind me. I found that when the car rode the kerbs, my left arm got
heavily banged against the chassis, and I now had a huge bruise that
goes to the bone!
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Race 1
The
race started well, I overtook around 7 cars
by the 3rd corner. (I had heated the tyres quite well on the green flag lap so
went immediately at race speed.) As the other drivers tyres warmed, they soon
reeled me in and I lost a couple of places to the rocket ship driven by Larry Jeram-Croft and Doug McLay who was driving very well. I then lost another place
to the Formula Renault driven by Simon Keast. We held station until the final
lap, when I made a good exit from a corner and managed to slipstream past the
Renault into the Esses. I finished in 8th, 7 places higher than I qualified.
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Qualifying 2
This was fairly uneventful. I went
out on Bridgestone rears and Avon fronts as these were the only tyres I could
get in the 30 mins between sessions. The car was not well balanced as the
Bridgestones gave the car a lower rear ride height which meant it understeered
horribly everywhere. This did not inspire confidence when the front end washed
out in low and high speed corners, with the occasional snap to oversteer.
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Race 2
I decided to run the F3 radial
Avon tyres, as the old tyres were by now worn to the cord and badly grained. The race also started well, I
passed 4 cars to the first corner, narrowly avoiding a couple of spinning cars
on the apex. The rest of the race was spent in a similar fashion to race 1, but
I was passed by a quick Ian Howard on the last lap. I finished in 13th place, a
gain of 4 places overall.
Both races were deservedly won by Robin Dawe
from pole position. |
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