dbRacing - Race Report Snetterton 12/13th Junel 2004

Porsche Club Race Report Croft 17/18th April 2004

Car - 924 Carrera GT

Practice

The start of the 2004 season was

Race 1

Race 2

After a dry Saturday the rain had returned, which i was actually quite pleased about having done some work on a wet setup on Friday. My third place in class finish gave me 7th on the grid and as practice had been dry we got the benefit of two green flag laps. Shame, I already knew where the puddles would be !

I was placed in the middle of the track, and could choose to go to the left or right. Most importantly I needed to make sure i didn't lose all traction. The red lights went out ( no greens this year) and not only did I not lose any places I actually passed Adam Egar. Clervaux was a raincloud with spray everywhere as athe yellow 911 of Rogers shot through and almost into the gravel. Tower was the same, but every one safely made it through and i started to chase Rogers. I almost passed him at Sunny in, but in taking avoiding action slowed so that by the time i was at the complext Adam had caught me and we went through side by side. He took the position, but i stayed to the inside as Rob Williams also went passed on the outside, carried too much speed and tapped both himself and Adam into a spin. Thank you very much.

Taking to the high rumble strips I avoided Adam at the hairpin but by now Rogers had got 40 yards on me. After another laps gaining confidence in the conditions I started to push and quite easily caught him. Two laps later I was crawling all over his bumper from Sunny in all the way to the hairpin. The traction of the 911 told down the straight and I checked that no-one was closing as we went round Clervaux again. Pushing hard I closed up enough to hacve a go at Tower but I was a yard or two short of making it stick and Mark kept position . Again I was all over him like a rash at Sunny and attempted a pass round the outside at the entrancxe to The Complex. His back end was getting twitchy now (oh err missus), and again I pushed hard throug Hawthorn. On the exit he put the power down too early and spun to the left, though much to my surprise he caught the spin and only lost momentum.

The class 1 cars in fron had cleared off, along with Richard Lambert, so I focussed on increasing the gap to the cars behind. About 6 laps later I came across Richard who had spun at Hawthorn. I was not close enough to attempt a pass but gave chase. Richard was clearly trying hard but was not going to make another mistake so I decided to settle for second in class, 5th overall for by best ever result in the Porsche Club series.

What a cracking weeekend, four races, four pots, three seconds and a third. Could this be my year ???