Racing Results 2013
Rounds 7 & 8 Snetterton: 20th/21st July 2013
- Race wins for Gary Prebble and Paul Rose
- Class wins for Ilsa Cox (x2), Chris Whiteley and Nick Hayes
After the hottest week of 2013, the competitors arrived at Snetterton to find the weather had cooled just enough to make racing bearable. However, a slim 14 car entry meant that the track was once again shared with the smart cars despite worried about speed differentials.
Qualifying:
Paul Rose (Saker) set the pace averaging just over 90mph for the lap of the Snetterton 300 circuit with fellow Saker driver Steve Harris taking 3rd place. Splitting the two was Gary Prebble (Mitsubishi Evo), the only driver other than Rose to go under 2 minutes for the lap. Incredibly, this was Prebble's first ever outing on this layout.
Another newcomer to the circuit, Steve Putt, took 4th place on the grid in his Mazda RX7 with Doug Ellwood (Marcos Mantis) 5th. Class B polesitter was Ilsa Cox (Seat Leon) in 6th, her nearest competitor Stephen Brooks in a similar Seat Leon was back in 9th place.
Class C leader Nick Hayes was narrowly quicker than Chris Whiteley, while the final Class C competitor, all in Seat Leons, Steven King lay three places behind Whiteley, the two PlayStation Nissan 370Zs having gone quicker.
Race 1 - Saturday:
As has been the norm this season, Paul Rose got off to a blistering start, leading Harris by 2.7 seconds at the end of the first lap with Prebble right on his bumper in third. There was already a 5 second further gap back to the battle for 4th where Ellwood made a better start and passed Putt; Peter Cook's 700bhp Mitsubishi Evo was just a second behind and keeping an eye on the battle between the two evenly matched cars in front.
Over the next two laps, Rose increased his lead over Harris to 4.3 seconds, with Prebble running at the same pace and maintaining the 1 second gap behind Harris. Putt was desperately trying to pass Ellwood, he seemed to have done so on occassion only to be outbraked again. Finally Putt caught Ellwood napping at Agostini on lap 3 and found a way round the inside - this fighting over 4th place had slowed both drivers and allowed the gap to 3rd to go up to 20 seconds in 3 laps. Now it was Cook's turn to chase Ellwood, superior power finally telling on lap 5.
The drama at the front came on lap 4 as Rose spun and dropped 2 places, Harris taking over the lead with Prebble still just that second behind, Rose was now 7 seconds adrift of Prebble, but safely in 3rd place as the gap back to Putt was still 17 seconds. By now, the leaders were already lapping the smarts, on lap 5 Prebble closed to within a 10th of Harris as they crossed the line, having exited Murrays bumper to bumper. Power told and Prebble took the lead going into Riches. By the end of the lap Prebble had pulled out a 1.2 second lead while the recovering Rose was the fastest driver on the circuit.
Prebble was slowly extending his lead while Rose was getting ever closer to Harris. But Rose was to run out of laps, Prebble crossing the line after 10 laps to win by 4 seconds from Harris, with Rose just 0.5 seconds adrift.
The battle for 4th place was won by Putt, somewhat aided by Cook spinning off the track on lap 6, an incident that seemed to slow the Mitsubishi, Cook retiring from the race 2 laps later with an electrical issue. Ellwood regained his 5th place with Cook's demise while Ilsa Cox took the Class B win and 6th place overall, but only by 2 seconds as Brooks had made up ground during the race. Class C honours went to Whiteley from Hayes, the pair having run in tandem throughout the race until the final lap where a late lunge saw them swap places, Hayes finishing just half a second behind his fellow Seat driver.
Race 2 - Sunday:
Despite the overnight break neither Cook nor Gary Furst could get their Mitsubishi Evos ready for the Sunday race depleting the field to 12 cars (and five smarts).
Rose got off to a flying start and built up a 3 second lead from Prebble over the opening lap, with Harris just half a second back. Rose's pace up front was relentless as he pulled clear by 1-2 seconds a lap. After the ease with which Prebble passed the Sakers in race 1, it was a surprise to see that in race 2 he couldn't pull away down the straights. Indeed on lap 4 the crowd saw the Harris' Saker outdrag the Mitsubishi down the Bentley straight. Prebble stayed in touch for a couple of laps before slowly falling away, while now second placed Harris could do nothing about the gap to Rose which was extending with every lap.
In a race which this time ran to 11 laps, in no small part due to Rose's pace, Rose took the chequered flag some 12 seconds ahead of Harris, in turn Harris was 7 seconds ahead of Prebble who had to settle for third place this time. Lucky that Prebble chose race 1 to play his double points joker!
Ellwood once again got the better of Putt from the start, Putt stayed in contention for the first two laps, but after that the Mazda seemed to slow from its normal pace and fell backwards down the order very quickly. Cox passed Putt to take 5th place on lap 3, a slow lap 4 saw Putt drop to 11th place.
Ellwood fell by the wayside on lap 7 promoting Cox to 4th, both Play Station Nissans had gone by lap 9. With Putt making up a place on the final lap, 11th improved to 7th, splitting the Seat Leons of Hayes and Whiteley. Cox's class win was a little easier this time, although Brooks finished just one place behind in 5th, a 20 second gap was enough to ensure that while Cox finished the race on the same lap as the winner, Brooks had been lapped on the final lap.
Rose's lead in the championship has extended further still, now leading 176-124 from Class C leader Whiteley, with Steve Harris now 12 points further back in 3rd place on 112 points. Seat have moved past Saker in the MSE-Performance.com Manufacturers Cup after a 164 point haul for the weekend and now lead 378-308. New for 2013, the Mark Fish Sports Car Cup and LMA Saloon Car Cup are led by Paul Rose 170-116 from Steve Harris and Gary Prebble 132-120 from Chris Whiteley respectively.
Next time out is Anglesey on 3/4 August.
With support from :
Mark Fish Motorsport, MSE-Performance.com & LMA Performance
Report by Trevor Nicosia, Car 10 (www.nyssaracing.com )
Click here to link to the full TSL Timing results pdf of the meeting