SNIPPETS FROM SNETT
Danny Winstanley made quite an impression winning both Caterham R300 races. Photo: John Cooper
More than two-hundred BRSCC Racing Members turned out to race on the Snetterton 300 circuit over Easter weekend, in what was our East Anglian Centre’s first meeting of the 2014 season.
The Avon Tyres backed Caterham Tracksports were the first on-track after Saturday’s lunch-break for the first of nineteen races over the two days. 2013 Roadsport champion Stephen Nuttall got his Tracksport campaign off to the perfect start, winning both races from Andres Sinclair. Paul Croll and Pete Fortune shared the third place spoils.
In the battle to succeed Nuttall as the Roadsport champion, top Academy graduates Henry Heaton and Will Smith fought tooth and nail in the first outing finishing in that order with Londoner Tim Dickens making his long-awaited first podium in third. Things didn’t go so well for Heaton in the second race as although he was first across the line he was soon disqualified for a technical infringement. This bumped Chris Hutchinson up to P1, with Cedric Bloch and Jack Brown completing the top three to ensure the points for the first two races were spread far and wide.
Next on show was the season debut for the newly backed Excool OSS Championship, who returned one of their best ever grids with twenty-six cars on duty. Taunton’s Craig Fleming will be the happiest OSS driver coming away from Snett with two wins and a second in his Juno TR250. Former champion, Tony Sinclair was the other race winner and also came second in race two. The returning Graham Cole drove his jade Trackstar to P3 twice. Darren Luke and Craig Mitchell were the other podium visitors coming second in the first race and third in the last race respectively.
Danny Winstanley certainly made his presence felt in the BookaTrack.com Caterham Superlight R300 Championship with the Preston based TVR exile scoring two relatively comfortable wins. Jon Barnes was the best of the rest with a second and third and Colchester’s Aaron Head took P2 in race two to maintain his podium visiting form from last season. DPR’s former Clio Cup driver Mike Robinson also had cause for optimism with third spot in the first outing.
The last of the Caterham championships to race at the weekend was the almost fully subscribed Supersports. The sheer volume of cars on the track contributed to a first lap incident that brought an early end to the race for nine competitors. At the front end of the field just over half a second separated the first three with Stafford’s Paul Thacker just holding off favourite Mike Hart, with Jonathan Mortimer in third. Hart and Mortimer had to settle for the same positions again in race two with Balham’s Adam White coming through on the last lap to win in an equally close encounter.
In the Fiesta Juniors, Flamstead’s Rob Cox carried on from where he left off at Silverstone with a comfortable win from Geri Nicosia and Michael Higgs. Cox was also on course to win the second race until a driveshaft failure curtailed his hopes. Michael Higgs was the main beneficiary taking the win and with it the championship points lead. Nicosia however remains in very close contention having not failed to make the podium in the four races to date.
In the Jam-Sport Fiesta Championship there were double class wins for Jack Williams (A), Mike Hooper (B) and Edward Cockill (D) with the latter taking the chequered flag in each race. Class D campaigners James Appleby and David Abbott can both be happy with their weekends work, each taking a P3 overall. In the keenly contested ST Class (C), the podium was repeated for both races. Ipswich’s David Ellesley just emerged as the victor on each occasion from David Grady, with Charlie Ladell a further five seconds off the leading pace.
The Teekay Couplings Production GTi Championship season got off to a fine start with 26 cars lining-up for the first race. 2104 champion Simon Hill was engaged in a great battle with Simon Gusterson for the whole race. Hill used his experience to come out on top with 2012 champion John Mawdsley third. Gusterson didn’t have to wait long for his revenge beating Hill to the line in the last race of the meeting by .0334 seconds with Mawdsley again third.
For the full results visit SNETTERTON RESULTS
The East Anglian Centre is back at Snetterton on Saturday 17thMay for a meeting featuring the Fun Cup Championship on the 200 circuit
