Snetterton was the first race of the second half of the season and we went there with high hopes even though we know it’s a power circuit where the others have a bit of an edge on us.
Flash had a wee bit of a power steering problem with one of the TOCA components in qualifying, so that saw him down the grid. I lined up fifth which was pretty good. The problem is that it’s so close out there, I was just 15 hundredths of a second off pole which is less than the blink of an eye!
We both went with the soft tyre for the first race as we’re trying to be strategic for the latter half of the year. The aim was to get a good lap time, and also to see if we could make them hold on until the end of the race. We managed to make them hold on but couldn’t quite get the quick lap we wanted out of them. I finished sixth but Flash got a bit beaten up in the middle of the pack and finished down at the back end of the points.
Snetterton is the longest circuit we go to, but what you can’t see on the TV is that it’s very tight and it’s very fast so it promotes close racing. It gets pretty physical and very rough out there so lining up 11th and 12th for race two was always going to be tough.
We both got caught up in a first lap melee with everyone acting like the last day of school and this put us both out which was just one of those things really.
Race three, we both started at the back and Flash picked up yet another problem. It seemed to be one of those weekends where whichever corner we turned there was another drama. I managed to make my way up to 11th and into the points despite carrying an injury from race two, but it’s nowhere near where we wanted to be.
It was a weekend of what could have been, what might have been and disappointment. It was a long drive home but the glass is half full. We’re going to be a wee bit lighter for Knockhill in two weeks’ time so we’re looking forward to that.
Historically Knockhill has been a rear wheel drive circuit so it should favour the BMW’s. But hopefully the nimbleness of the Type R should put us in good stead against the other front wheel drives and more importantly the VWs. The championship is so close on time and so close on points so as always we’re looking forwards not backwards.
BTCC Driver’s Blog – Written by Matt Neal
