Snetterton 31st May 2008 -
Race Progress Report from Andy Shepherd

Blessed with the first rain-free day for a week or more, the bright sunshine was truly uplifting. 'If it stays like this all day, Jonathan Palmer will collect another ten pounds off you on the way out!' joked the man on the gate; (something tells me the staff don't get a free lunch voucher or something any more...)

Qualifying went reasonably well, I thought - no dramas, the 26 cars on track spread out well enough not to get in each other's way too often and memories of the corners and lines seemed to be reawakened. The timesheets showed my best lap was just 4 tenths behind Dave Randall's Ginetta, Julian Dodd's TVR Griffith was ahead of me by 0.7 and Andrew Marler's Elan, on pole, ahead by 1.4. The long straight of the current track configuration exaggerates the Seven's aerodynamic weakness, so to find another TVR Griffith, a couple of Morgan Plus 8s and an Elan behind me was quite gratifying. And Martin Halliday's series three Seven was 1.7 seconds behind me, too.

A funnel is a device to help pour liquids into narrow orifices - so how do I get so excited about the funnel I bought a couple of days before the race? When Protune built my pre-crossflow 1500cc engine, Rob forgot to include provision for a dip stick. (I know, there's already one behind the wheel...) So we need to optimise the oil level in terms of how much the breather blows out into its catch tank. Protune also omitted to provide an oil filler cap - doubtless all saving weight high up - so we have to top up the oil via the rocker cover breather pipe. Hence the need for a funnel. I was just leaving the Discount Auto Parts shop when I spotted my new funnel on a lower shelf. This funnel has a lid, to stop dirt getting in when it's dusty. It has a wire mesh filter at the bottom to stop any particles getting into the engine. It has a long tube so it can reach those difficult spots, like a gearbox or differential filler hole. But more than this! It has a valve that can be opened and shut at the funnel base AND it has fluid volume graduations up its sides! So Alex and I were easily able to measure the volume of engine oil blown out into the catch tank, release it back into the engine while filtering out any particles and then precisely add a known volume of fresh engine oil to make up for the inevitable losses. Brilliant - a chore made into a joy!

At the start I let the clutch in fully too soon, allowing the revs drop down too low in first gear letting Bruce Stapleton's Plus Eight, Mark Garritt's Griffith 200 and Martin Halliday's Seven past me - and Dave Randall. Trying to go around the outside of Dave at Sear, the tightish right feeding onto the back straight, I got squeezed off line allowing Peter Shaw's Elan past Dave and me. Could it get any worse? Yes it could... Approaching the Russell chicane at the end of the lap I tried to go from fourth to second gear direct - a great idea in theory, but not something I'd managed in practice, despite trying a few times. I kept ending up knocking on the door of reverse, amid a wailing and gnashing of teeth - mercifully not engaging! At the exit of the corner I still had not found a gear and so lost two more places, Jim Grant's Elan and Oliver Phillips' Plus Eight blasting by. From 4th to 10th in little more than 90 seconds...

Oliver stormed past Jim on the pit straight, but a late brake and my usual quite good attack on Riches (?) saw me pull alongside the white Elan on the approach to Sear. I must have got a better exit from the right hander, because Jim wasn't able to come back at me down the ensuing straight, so now I was focused on the yellow Morgan. I gained on him all through the long fast right of Coram and so was on his bumper when we arrived at Russell. He powered ahead on the pit straight and then held me up through Riches, but at the end of the back straight I braked later and got on the inside for the Esses. However, Oliver didn't give up and held his position on my right to control the second part of the corner, a slight twitch on the exit suggesting he was trying quite hard! I looked inside and outside of him around Coram as we caught Mark Garritt's Griffith, both of us slipping through past him on Riches at the start of the next lap. I slipstreamed the Plus Eight down the back straight, ducking left at the three hundred metre board and out braking Oliver into the Esses, properly this time. Now free to take the Bomb-hole and Coram at my speed, I'd pulled out several car lengths by the time I exited Russell, just in time to pass Martin as his Seven pitted, (to rejoin three laps down). But Oliver was now copying my lines and was noticeably quicker through Riches and the all-important Sear, so that he was able to exploit his V-8 power and blast past me again barely halfway down the back straight. I followed through the Esses but made sure my Bomb-hole exit was not compromised, enabling me to get inside him around Coram and so command the braking zone for Russell. A clean exit here, and staying to the left on the pit straight, I was confident that he could not outbrake me into Riches up the inside and still get round the corner - and so it proved.

And that was it, really; a couple of back markers made me corner off line once or twice, slower exit speeds allowing the yellow Morgan to close back up on me a little, but then he lost it at the exit of the Esses - where he had twitched earlier. He rejoined without losing a place, but I was left all alone for the remaining twenty minutes, with nothing else to do but lap the slower cars - in some cases three or four times. I was pulling 7,300rpm in top at my braking point on the back straight, just before the 100 metre board - around 112 mph. My average for the entire race was 81mph...

And then I saw Peter Shaw's Elan ahead of me! He was around 3 seconds in front as he entered the Bomb-hole, but once through Coram and Russell he was only three tenths ahead as we crossed the line - and took the chequered flag. Sixth place wasn't so bad - and it was very, very nearly fifth. But half an hour pounding round Snetterton is enough for me - and I was glad we hadn't entered the 23 in the 3 hour race which followed this one.

Gear changing errors apart, I thought I'd driven well and consistently; like the first three finishers, (Andrew Marler's Elan, Dave Randall's Ginetta and Julian Dodd's Griffith), my best lap was a little slower than in qualifying, but this was probably because of a heavy fuel load when the track was clear at the start, before we began to lap the slower cars. Clearly I've got to work on the detail of a couple of corners, at least - the Esses and especially Russell, with its adverse camber on the exit crucially leading on to the pit straight.

A final thought: if your edge comes from cornering speed rather than straight line speed, do you suffer more from lapping back markers? OK, I'm just dreaming up excuses! Brands Hatch GP circuit next, though - one of my favourites...

Andy Shepherd