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Uniroyal Team Challenge

Snetterton Five-hour race 25^th September 2004

Car 41 - Team Prestige Motorsport: Trevor Gibbs, Heather Darwin, Alistair Stenhouse.

by Christopher Darwin

The team’s previous event had been the four hour race at Brands Hatch on Saturday 13^th June, when we finished 10^th and which had seemed a long time previously. However, as Heather and I drove up to Norfolk and met the rest of the team, everything and everybody fell back into place. There was a practice session on Friday afternoon; the car was running well and all three drivers were producing good times – around 1minute 30 seconds – and we were looking forward to a good result.

This meeting was unusual in that a strong contingent of Belgian teams was taking part; there were 17 UK cars and 13 Belgian. Furthermore, Franz Dubois - the former Belgian racing driver who not only conceived this concept of cheap motor racing but more importantly has manufactured all the cars – had turned up with two large wagons for a party. This very generous hospitality was laid on with some style. His team of helpers had set up awning type tents next to the wagons and after practice ended we were all invited to the barbecue. It was fairly noisy and we left early to our B&B, well fed and adequately full of Belgian beer and sangria.

Saturday dawned grey and with damp in the air. Drivers reported disturbed nights due to Belgian spicy sausage sitting on their stomachs – was this a new secret weapon? The track was dry and the morning qualifying times were still good. The fuel consumption figures calculated from Friday’s practice worked well and we decided to run the 40 litre tank from 30 litres, so that the car would pitstop after 50 minutes with about 10 litres remaining. About 30 minutes before the start at 1300 it rained heavily, and we changed from the part worn tyres that the drivers knew well to a fresh set.

When the race started it was still raining hard and although Trevor was about 20^th on the grid, the chaos of the first lap put him at the back. With lap times of 1min 46s it was clear that the circuit was very slippery. Heather was looking apprehensive as she went out for her 50 minutes, and despite some spins her lap times improved as the track became less wet. After two hours we were 23^rd.

Our pitstops went well, and we coordinated them with our neighbours so that we did not get in each others’ way. We took a stab at wet weather fuel consumption – and it worked; the car was not overfuelled and did not run out.

Our neighbours were team Honeywell, second fastest UK team – and the drivers reported that the Belgian cars seemed to have more power. I am sure that cannot be true, but they did make a different noise and Belgians do not play cricket. Maybe the Belgian drivers know Snetterton and wet weather better than the natives. They do have more experience of the car and the race series.

For the last half of the race the track was only damp and all three of our drivers were achieving around 1minute 32 secs; we finished 20th overall, ninth UK team. Belgians took seven of the first eight places. The winner covered 182 laps, we were nine laps behind. Unusually, all but one of the cars finished. The safety car was out for 17 minutes while sometimes very bent cars were recovered to the pits, but the teams resurrected them; the last car was 15 laps behind us. Once again, we beat several cars with faster lap times, but we were disappointed not to finish higher than ninth UK team.

Snetterton is not as far away as I imagined – just over two hours from Sussex on mainly fast roads. I had not been to there for years and liked the place. It is a 1.95 mile circuit with proper pit lane facilities and garages. There were good views from the pits and the circuit has some very fast straights as well as some demanding wiggly bits, particularly the Russell chicane. I discussed running a charity track day with the manager and I am planning a day in March 2005.

Our next race will be the last of the season at Rockingham on Sunday 10^th October.

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