Snetterton 17/18th May 2003

Snetterton in Norfolk is a fast and challenging circuit. Qualifying practice saw our Van Diemen pair in the Duratec Pro Race, Dave Mountain and Allen Timpany in second and third places on the grid. Hathaway racing had made some changes to the Mountain car, a revised front- end set-up that had performed well in testing, and David seemed happy with it.

The race was held on Sunday, on a dry track with blustery wind and warm sunshine. Pole sitter was Manderson in his Carbir, but after a hectic start Mountain took the lead and pulled out a six seconds lead. The race was half an hour long, and towards the end David started to slow with overheated tyres and an overheated body. Two laps from the finish Manderson passed to regain the lead and David finished a couple of seconds behind. This was still a remarkable result as Manderson is an accomplished driver with races from last season behind him, David being in only his third Sports 2000 race and only the second one in his own car.

Allen Timpany finished in third place, only a second down on lap times to David, he is looking a real challenger for more podiums in the coming races.

The Duratec cars are now starting to show their speed difference to the pinto powered ones with a four second a lap advantage at Snetterton.

The Pinto race saw a retirement with a broken gearbox from Mike Turner who was running a strong fifth, a fourth place from Rupert Russell and a remarkable mid race finish for David Houghton. David competed after a ten-hour rebuild of the car by Smith Motorsport. The rebuild needed after David was involved in a qualifying accident. David managed his fastest ever time in the race and said the car was just fine.

I retired after six laps in the pro race with a jammed gear.

Our next meeting at Thruxton should have Mike Johns out in the ex Rowan Van Diemen, we look forward to that.

We have sold another car to the USA for a west coast runner, M. Shumate.

Nik has completed his first race in the USA, the Portland NorPac National. He put the car on pole and won the race, the competition was not the strongest but he did what he needed to do and will get maximum points towards the Runnoffs.

Next week he is in Seattle for two more races, we hope for good points from those.

Two final thank-you’s, firstly to Ralf and Mrs Firman, Jonathan Lewis, and his race engineer, who all helped with the Houghton car rebuild.

Also to Graham Hathaway , Adam and the crew who helped me over the weekend.