Snetterton 30th May 2009 -
Race Progress Report from Andy Shepherd

My most local track has several good corners, but also the longest straight in UK club motorsport, which is not good for the un-aerodynamic shape of a Lotus Seven. Nevertheless, Blue Streak has performed well there in the past, albeit never yet taking the chequered flag first. Sadly this year the litte car had barely begun its first flying lap of qualifying before losing drive on the second corner, leading onto the back straight... The left rear hub had broken - the flange holding the wheel studs becoming separated from the hub body through failure of a welded connection. This has never happened before on my Seven, but others have since told me they've experienced it too; I suppose it's just an occupational hazard of using Standard Eight/Ten components on a modern-tyred racing car...

Watching the race down by the Esses, it was clear that Andrew Marler's Elan was easily the quickest car through this part of the track; he was attacking the second part of the Ess with considerably more gusto than anybody else and was a joy to behold. The whole event was incident-packed and exciting to watch - but even if my car had not failed, an outright win would not have been on, which was some comfort!

Andy Shepherd