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Snetterton 300 - BMCRC - Clubman 1000

The first weekend at Snetterton's 300 circuit with BEMSEE (24th/25th March) was a great success as a first outing. Ultimately thanks to some good racing and consistency I'm now leading the Clubman 1000 Cup. I battled flu all weekend but had a great time out there.

Friday was spent instructing Jos Bond and Richard Payne who are both racing in the Rookie 1000 series. Jos is a top chap who, although he unfortunately broke a wrist and collar bone on Sunday, made excellent progress through the weekend, even managing some points on the Sunday. Richard comes with a wealth of riding knowledge but not knowing Snetterton at all, had some hard work to do to learn its complexities. Richard also did brilliantly and dropped his lap times consistently over the weekend.

We put new Michelin rubber on for the Saturday qualifying. Michelin hadn't been able to get any Hard rear tyres and the medium compound was tearing quite badly around Coram but we managed to get a few quick laps in to qualify 4rd in class. Considering I was bottoming out the front suspension, I was pleased. I kept finding that the front was juddering and bouncing across the track surface under heavy braking which made it difficult to trail brake properly and I was having to move my braking markers dramatically! A quick inspection by Steve Jordan found that the front had too much static sag and was way too soft.

The Saturday race started well, although I dropped a few places in the first lap thanks to a couple of silly mistakes. However, as the fairly long race progressed, I found my mojo and slowly closed down on the 2nd place guy, having spent the first half of the race in 5th. Ultimately in the last lap, I pulled out a 2:00 lap and took 3 seconds out of the chap in front, crossing the line just 3 hundredths behind him. He knew he'd been on his own for a while and was fairly shocked when I drew level just after the flag! So I missed out on the second but the 3rd was still a good result given my relatively poor fitness right now (and my man flu!).

On Sunday, I started the 12 lap first race really well, clawing my way to 1st in my class by turn 2 (Montreal). By lap 4 I still had Gennaro chasing me and was really getting into the groove. Unfortunately Rob McNeally high-sided on the exit of Oggies (turn 6) and the race had to be stopped whilst he received medical assistance on circuit. Suffering a broken wrist, that was the end of his weekend. After sitting around in the cold morning air shivering I made a pretty terrible restart and lost out to some excellent riding by Tim Cripps and Gennaro. Ultimately though, I managed to keep second place in my class, which was a pleasing result.

During the final race of the weekend I learnt the hard way that the soft front Michelin has a fairly short life. Although I didn't completely lose the front, it was tucking on me and running wide through the fast turns. I couldn't manage the excellent lap times of the morning and knowing I was in a safe 3rd place I decided to back off a bit and just get a feel for the bike in its new set-up.

We learnt a lot over the 2 days of racing. During qualifying I was suffering from poor front set-up and generally found that although really grippy, the Michelins aren't as consistent as the Pirellis and Metzelers I'm used to and do require that you work with them through their life. Simply riding the same way on them each time out won't work. Chris Mason from Michelin UK was incredibly helpful and I'm looking forward to getting the harder compound on for next time out!

Next time out is on April 14th and 15th at Brands Hatch (Indy).