Snetterton 17th & 18th Oct

[pbove]

There are two videos on youtube which show the races....

Qually
It was a bigger than usual grid assembled for the last race meeting of the season, with a new driver and car combo to be added to the mix. Qually was cold and damp and the track was very slippery. I had the benefit of a pitboard telling me that I was 11 secs off pole...... hmm! Luckily, Richard managed to drag me round to two 2nd places which was more than I had expected and only 8 secs of pole..... well, that's OK then! Great result by Andrew Kemp, John Donley and formula newbie William Smith to qualify well on slicks and also for Dave Hodkin who clearly didn't know how slippery it was.

Race 1
The weather had dried so there was reasonable grip. I managed to get a reasonable start, but was too cautious at Montreal and fell behind Andrew and Mark. Managed to pass Mark into Palmers and then chased Andrew and finally passed him into Montreal the following lap. Then it was a bit depressing to see Dave Hodkin disappearing with ease. I ended up 2nd and a country mile behind him, which would have been two country miles if he'd been trying. There seemed to be a number of good battles down the field and, in parc ferme Steve Boother had a grin a mile wide thanks to having annexed the Class B championship - well done Steve!

Race 2
Back to cold and damp conditions..... and wets....
My side of the circuit was reasonably dry so I was able to get off to a flier - for a change and I then spent the rest of the first lap waving people past me..... Dave, Andrew, Richard, Ian, Mark and Steve all piled past as I tried to balance risk against reward. I only needed to finish to win the championship and I was quite keen to avoid becoming part of someone else's accident..... so I had my own instead...... a little spin onto the grass at Oggies. Apart from that it was a scary but uneventful race and I managed to get the finish that I would have needed had Mark won.

So, a fifth title, albeit with the hard work having been done earlier in the year when Dave hadn't got his car sorted and Mark was still struggling to establish where his car performance had gone over the winter. Mark has endured a trying year and I am honoured to have taken over the #1 plate from him. Congratulations to Steve Boother, to Richard for a great 3rd place in race two, to William for two great finishes in a brand new car and to everyone who managed to negotiate really tricky conditions and avoid any red flags!

It might be a couple of weeks before I'm ready to start planning for 2021, the car is still in the trailer at the minute, but I will be there, proud as punch to have won the championship! Thanks to everyone who congratulated me at Snetterton - its been a long road to get back there and its an amazing feeling to have done so.

[DaveHodkin]

Congratulations to Pete and Steve for their championship wins, well done guys.

Special congratulations to Bill Smith for his efforts in both qually and race 2 on slicks first time out, obviously the rally driving experience must have helped with the (extremely) low grip conditions. Great to see a friendly new driver and another brand new car, all the best for next year.

My weekend was an exercise in terrifying myself successfully (if you ignore the spin on the green flag lap for race two which the cameraman thankfully missed). Five years of effort with the build and a year of breaking things I didn't design correctly resulted in the sort of day you hope for when you set out on the journey of building your own car.

Have a good winter everyone, hopefully next year will have more actual racing in it...

[Conway]

Congratulations to all on this season's successes - Peter's championship, Dave's wins, Steve's class B win, Richard for eliminating himself from class B by finishing on the podium and everyone else for getting out there.

I'm a bit disappointed with my performance this weekend, but at least I was there. Steve's acquisition of new wets explains how he managed to mug me under the bridge in race 2 when I'd passed him so comfortably in qualifying.

Having snatched 12th and 11th from 9th on both grids I'm consoling myself that there must have been about 200 years of combined experience in front of me!

I thought you might like to watch 39 seconds of how I was my own worst enemy in race 2. The live stream cameras were looking the wrong way...
https://youtu.be/JB-b5HN3ekM

[pbove]

Hi Conway, good to see that you haven't lost your sense of humour! But you might need some new wets....... it was bad, but not as bad as it looked from your car!

[suebmick]

Blimey Conway...if you're gonna do it, do it in style! 2 fabulous 360's! Very neat & tidy!

The only trouble with buying new wets is that you normally then have 6 seasons of dry track! But I do know how you feel...I spent nearly 20 years on my trusty Bridgestones & pretty much hated every wet race. Then I put Mick's Michelin wets on my car for a ladies race at the Walter Hayes at Silverstone when it POURED & loved every minute! The difference was unbelievable. I even enjoyed aquaplaning! Michelins are VERY hard to find (we lucked into another set so now we've got 2 sets between us) but Steve's drive in the 2nd race seems to show the Yoko's aren't too shabby either.

Thanks everyone for the entertainment from afar this year. The Harris Hermits of Kent are working hard to be Team Harris again & we look forward to a proper season in 2021 & to SEEING everyone. We've missed you all big time. Assuming we're allowed out & this blasted virus has disappeared as quickly as it hit the world.

The only good thing about this year is that the diesel bill has been non-existant. Filled up the van & car in Feb/March. And it's still in the tanks!

Roll on normality.

[TonyS]

Found this video of the race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu18fcpaafI

persons channel as qualifying and race 2 as well.

and previous races too if you search