British GT Snetterton – Saturday Morning Notes
Ford Fastest In The Wet

It seemed as though the weather had been packed up with the cars at the end of the Rockingham meeting and brought out again in Norfolk, as the rain lashed down at the start of proceedings at Snetterton. There was no large queue to be found at the end of the pitlane as the 75 minute free practice session started; the grim conditions seemingly dampening enthusiasm – coming as it did after a wet Friday test.

Allan Simonsen set the early pace in the session (amongst the few that took part in the early stages), but a red flag was flying after just ten minutes. Bizarrely, there was no snatch vehicle available for this meeting, so the expectation was that we would see many reds and safety cars over the two days.

The only change to the entry list was that Maxi Jazz would not be driving the Promotorsport Nissan 350Z (although he was present at the circuit); leaving Dereck Palmer to race alone – incurring a ten second penalty at the pitstop as a result.

The very distinctive looking and sounding Ford GT was into the 1:21s shortly after resumption of track activity; suggesting already that this would be a short-odds pole contender. And this was confirmed when Allan Simonsen (Allan Simonsen!?) slipped off at Bomb Hole shortly afterwards, with fortunately only minor damage being incurred.

The faster times were traded by a number of drivers over the course of the rest of the session and the other Ferrari runners started to come to the fore. Adam Wilcox finished second fastest on 1:20.571 in the always rapid – and always unlucky –VRS 430; and CR Scuderia had a much more satisfactory time than in the corresponding session at Rockingham. Luke Hines was briefly quickest in the #16 car, but finished in fourth; just behind the Meadows/Sutton car.

Only one car seemed to suffer major problems in the session and this, unfortunately, was the #9 Tech 9 Lamborghini Gallardo. Despite this being a completely different car to the one that raced at Rockingham – this was the Reiter test car, last seen being raced by Guy Harrington and Ben de Zille Butler at Knockhill – it was suffering from exactly the same problem that had caused Leo Machitski’s retirement from Round 5; a waterlogged gearbox control unit.

The #1 RPM Viper also seemed to be in trouble, only completing four laps and finishing slowest car of the session; but this was not the case, as Steve Clark explained; “We only went out to bed some brakes in,” said the Rockingham winner, “and we were on some very old wets; we’re saving the new tyres for qualifying.

“The track was improving throughout the session, but there was no point in going out. We decided to keep it to a minimum and save the car for qualifying. The #2 (RPM Viper) was out there, so we know what the car can do. I’ve only done six laps so far this weekend, but it’s probably my favourite track and I’m very familiar with it.”

The #3 Chad Ferrari and the #51 RPM Ginetta both sat out the session, but not for any technical reasons.

Barrie Whight and Gavan Kershaw were hoping for some dry running in the Cadena Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 on their return to the series. “The car’s stable, but doesn’t have lightning pace in the wet,” said Whight. “In the dry, we’re capable of running in the top six, but in the wet we’ll be midfield.”

Since last appearing in the BGT at Oulton Park, the team has not been idle; “We raced here in the Britcar race,” said Kershaw, “and then ran a private test here. We raced on Dunlops, but in the test we ran on both tyres and found that there was no difference in times.

“Prodrive were at the test as well, ahead of the Nurburgring 24, and Thomas Enge had a run in the car – we wanted to find out if there was extra time in the car that Barrie and I couldn’t find; but his laptimes were no faster than ours, so we know that the team has set the car up well.” 

Also present was Paul Whight, who would be racing his Aston Martin AMR1 in the Group C support race at Le Mans the following weekend. “The car’s ready to go – despite Barrie barbecuing it when he drove it for the first time a month ago – but it’s going to be a rush tomorrow. We’ve got to get packed up here (the team being in its awning rather than in a pit garage) tomorrow evening; then get loaded on Monday morning to get to Le Mans for scrutineering on Tuesday – it’s a long week for not a lot of running.”

The Rob Austin racing #55 Ginetta was fastest in GT4, ahead of the #52 RPM and #88 IMS G50s. The coming two races should see a battle royal between these three cars.