Snetterton 300: Round 1 replay

Snetterton provided it’s usual wet welcome on Friday, and we didn’t really get any laps out of the test day. To nick another sporting saying, it was an ‘early bath’ for us, and an early night dreaming of better weather.

We were out for qualifying at 10.15, and were really pleased to qualify on pole. The bikes were feeling good and we were raring to go. Time seemed to drag until race start at 3.25, but eventually we were off. And in sunshine too!

Steve led the race for an impressive 18 laps and finished his session in the lead. Ben went out and maintained that position all the way through his session. After one hour we were sitting pretty with a decent lead over our nearest rivals, and championship leaders, IBL. At an hour and a half – half way through – we were a lap and 7 seconds ahead, and by the 2-hour mark we were 2 laps and a second in the lead. All was looking rosy!

During Steve’s last stint, there had been a safety car incident. We knew our lead would diminish as the pack bunched up, but with a lap in the bag we were confident we could maintain our race strategy and still win. However, we didn’t count on the organisers suddenly awarding IBL a lap back. Unfortunately no one informed us that the team directly behind us had been given a lap back out of nowhere, and therefore we had no opportunity to change our strategy to counter it. We would have adjusted our plan, brought Ben in sooner and given Steve different instructions when he went out. That, coupled with a ride through penalty Steve incurred meant that our 2-lap lead suddenly went down to 6 seconds.

We had 6 minutes to go, IBL were catching when Steve was forced onto the grass. He recovered but the lead was lost. Then suddenly the race clock was adjusted – again without notice – and the 2-3 laps we had left suddenly turned into a chequered flag. We lost by 8 seconds.

All-in-all an eventful days racing, if not a touch confusing! We gained valuable championship points. Our boys rode well and our bikes ran perfectly – so we have to take that positive out of the weekend.