Snetterton

September 23-24th

'Drivers Perspective' report by Jon Davis:

The week leading up to the Snetterton Double Header...
As I drove away from Mallory Park on Sunday evening the view in my rear mirror was rather sad . . . one bent corner, with no spares and no time to make the necessary corrections.  On Monday morning I penned an EMail thanking everyone for a great season and bowing out of CFF1600
for the foreseeable future.  I also penned an EMail to a select band of friends, as I usually do on the Monday after an event updating them with the weekend's action, this mail was short and sweet "that's it boys pull down the shutters".  On Tuesday morning I got the call from one of this
band asking whether I would race if he could borrow an Upright for me ... I took some persuading but relented with the negative attitude by lunchtime and so the wheels cranked into motion.  On Thursday evening the Upright, and said friend, arrived and work progressed through the night to get the change made and the car set-up.  I think there are probably only 5 DL11's in the UK and by Wednesday evening I had had calls from three of their owners offering their uprights . . . thanks to the Davis quote on www.ff1600.co.uk this response was magic!  Thanks also to Andy Smith (Van Dieman RF73) my Class B sparing partner, for his keenness to get me out again and the associated EMail banter through out the week giving me hope, and more contacts.

Saturday...
Having crawled up from West Sussex via the car park of the M25 and M11 on the Friday evening, an early start with the final fettling was possible such that by 10:30 everything was just so (well just so in
Davis preparation terms) and, even with the most fastidious scruitineer, against all the odds I sat in the collecting area three cars from the front of the eighteen car queue ready to qualify . . . game on, watch out Dave it's not all over just yet!  A couple of early incidents focussed my mind a little, the first ducking Dave Penlington's nose as it parted company from the Royale and then rapidly followed by the second, having a spin on the exit of The Esses, just in front of Dave's 'noseless' Royale, dragging a little mud onto the circuit (apologies to anyone that may have affected).  Things in the DL11 cockpit calmed down after this and I pounded round improving my time pretty much lap on lap finishing with a 1:20:6 and 8th on the grid.  As Class B goes the grid couldn't be much tighter with Dave, Andrew and myself occupying slots 6, 7 and 8 with a time gap of less that 1/2 a second.  In Class A Mr. Robinson did his usual trick and stuck his car on pole, thankfully for Messer's Hare and Walton this was another brief skirmish into the 2006 CFF1600 championship for Oliver . . . what was unusual was the gap from pole to second, being over 1/2 a second.  At one point during the session I passed Oliver on the way down Revitt Straight, I assumed he was heading for the pits . . . it seems that he was actually keen to find a good tow, and was successful in finding one!  The remaining two Class A possible champions Steve and Paul were separated by Mr. Gathercole and just short of 3/4 of a second.  Novice champion elect Joe Walton sat in a strong 10th place.  Steve Pearce and Jon Nash both suffered problems and did not manage the full 15 mins whilst Dave Lowe was a little late out for practice, caught out by the keenness of the organisers to get through the day as soon as possible.

On returning to the paddock it became evident that the car had coughed a huge amount of coolant into the catch tank, something I have been suffering to some extent since Pembrey . . . the car had not shown signs of overheating during the previous 15 mins which was a little confusing.  Some head scratching later it was decided that the head gasket may have 'gone' and so in the 4 1/2 hours leading up to the race a new gasket, and pressure cap, was fitted.  Nothing like a challenge, as if the previous week hadn't been enough of an headache.  A hot test and quick lap of the paddock suggested things were OK to go and so when requested I headed back to the assembly area and duly reversed up into
the 8th place slot.

A pretty good start from yours truly resulted in me cruising up to Dave L's gearbox on the run to Riches. . . unfortunately for me Andy Smith's start put him right alongside me such that as Dave turned into the corner I was left high and dry and forced to teeter around the outside picking up a load of crud from off line . . . the resultant understeer on the exit of Seers forced me to run wide and lift off allowing Jon Nash and Colin Williams through before The Esses.  Having cleaned up my tyres I squeezed back past Colin the following lap, making up a further position as we all filed past a recovering Gathercole somewhere around The Esses . . . it is about this time that my Saturday afternoon turned to (insert your favourite expletive).  Having missed a couple of gears during the initial melee, ok and revved the engine to 7800, I assumed that a misfire which developed at the start of lap 4 was a bent valve and headed for the pits.  On arriving in the pits I jumped out of the car, something I have to usually do as pit wall assistance is a bit of a novelty, gave the engine a quick rev and noted No.1 HT lead laying limply across the engine . . . foolishly I grabbed said HT lead, gave myself a good shock, cursed, dropped the lead and switched off the engine.  Having refitted the HT lead it then took a further minute to get settled back into the car . . . but with points on offer I had to get back out and finish, which I did . . . flat last, but third in class.  Elsewhere in Class B Andrew lead momentarily before dropping back behind Dave the pair finishing 8th and 9th though separated by 10 seconds as Andrew battled to hold off Colin Williams.  With that result it was confirmed that Dave had once again tied up the pre 1974 class championship.  In Class A the championship remained open though the pointers were definitely heading towards Mr Hare.  Steve and Oliver battled hard for the win for 11 of the 12 laps before Oliver succumbed to the pressure making a mistake on the last lap and ending up an unrepresentative 9 seconds behind Steve.  These two managed to make a jump on the rest of the field from the get go as Messer's Gathercole, Walton (Senior), Penlington and to some extent Lowe and the fast starting Nash held each other up.  The 5 car squabble for second place pushed them all back into reach of the impressive Walton (Junior) and as Gathercole headed back up the queue Walton (Senior) headed down.  With two laps to go Walton (Junior) pickled off Lowe for 7th as Walton (Senior) was picked off by Penlington dropping to 5th, the driver in the Walton Sandwich, Jon Nash.  A monumental last lap from Joe resulted on a double pass to finish fifth, trailing home Hare, Robinson, Gathercole and Penlington and ahead of Paul . . . the first of many . . . I'm so glad Joe wasn't a novice last year!

Jon Davis' report continues for Snetterton Round 9 (click here)