RACES 5&6: SNETTERTON: 19 JULY 2009
with thanks to Chris Butler, John Day, Peter Everingham, Dave Tomlin, Ben Cartwright and others.

The third outing for the Club’s classic racers was in the far east of the country at Snetterton.   With both Gary Culver and Nicky Paul-Barron absent a number of others must have especially fancied their chances for the win. Some availed themselves of a wet practice day on Friday and though the weather was fairly bleak and windy for qualifying, it at least stayed dry. At the end of the session 23 runners made it through, with Jim Cartwright quickest in his Class 4 328, a comfortable eight tenths ahead of Chris Compton-Goddard’s Class 2 308. Ben Cartwright was third and fastest in Class 3 in his 328 ahead of Dave Tomlin in his Class 3 328 “Rosie”.

Race One
The weather looked as though it could turn nasty, so Race 1 was anxiously anticipated. On the warm-up lap many of the drivers noticed oil flags being held out at the first bend, a legacy of an expired Aston Martin during the previous race. As the red lights went out, the Cartwright brothers both got good starts and led the chasing pack into the first bend. By contrast, Tomlin made a poor start from the second row and in trying to rectify matters carried too much speed into the slippery Riches Corner, lost the back end of the car and spun out of control in the middle of the bend leading to chaos behind with all the cars having to take evasive action.   Some took to the grass and most escaped, but there was just not enough room for everyone and the inevitable collisions ensued. John Day “miraculously managed to avert major damage either to his front or David’s side but a nanosecond later came that sickening crunch as Didier Benaroya hit me up the rear with a mighty thump.”

The race was red flagged almost immediately, but not all the drivers saw the red flags and carried on at full speed for a few more bends. Recovering the damaged cars and mopping up yet more oil led to a delay of around 30 minutes. Of course, by this time the heavens had opened and what was already going to be an edgy restart was made even more so by the advent of a rain soaked track. Benaroya had to retire his Mondi and Chris Wilson his 308. Day, Richard Allen and of course Tomlin all suffered bodywork damage, but were able to continue.

After two very slow green flag laps, the race started and Tomlin and Ben Cartwright made good starts and led everyone safely around the first lap. From row 3, Chris Butler overtook a hesitant Cartwright B under braking into The Esses to take second place behind Tomlin.

Chris Compton-Goddard made a terrible start from the front row of the grid, just sitting there with his wheels spinning; this delayed Honnor and Nick Cartwright but they got past at Sear. Goddard’s fast 308 re-passed down the long Revett Straight but at the exit to Bomb Hole, he had a moment and Honnor and Cartwright were forced to take avoiding action to avoid another pile-up. William Jenkins (308GTB) had got boxed in behind Goddard at the start and was also caught up in the incident, coming to a brief halt before resuming.

Lap 2 saw Tomlin open up a gap to second and third, with Peter Moseley fourth. Just behind Peter Everingham and Richard Moseley were holding station, but Jim Cartwright was hunting them down as he progressed through the field.   Jenkins spun at Coram on the second lap avoiding Goddard yet again. As he was now last, he retired, probably deciding this was all too silly. Things then settled down as everyone got used to the conditions. On the final lap of the shortened race, Butler sensed a chance to put himself into an overtaking manoeuvre down the flat out 5th gear Revett Straight, but braked too late into Sear Corner and harmlessly spun through 180 degrees, dropping down to a frustrating fourth place in the process as Ben and Jim Cartwright raced past. John Day, starting from the back after the first incident, managed to work his way up through the field in his damaged car to finish 12th, where he had started. Tomlin won Class 3, Jim Cartwright Class 4; Richard Moseley Class 2 and William Moorwood (308GT4) Class 1.

Race Two
The rain stopped and Race 2 was late on, so the track had dried by the time it started using grid positions formed from the finishing order of Race 1. Ben Cartwright beat brother Jim into the first bend but his lead was short lived as Jim got by later in the lap. Tomlin again got a bad start slipping half a dozen or so places as a result of missing a gear on the dash to the first bend, allowing Chris Goddard and Peter and Richard Moseley to nip through ahead of him. On lap 2, Tomlin made an over-ambitious attempt to pass Moseley right in the middle of Russell, the cars touched and Moseley was bumped into a 180° spin. The engine stalled, and he was forced to wait for the whole field to go by before he could re-join.

Early on, Honnor, Everingham and Allen were just keeping ahead of Goddard, who had started from a lowly ninth on the grid, but Snetterton favours the more modified cars with big brakes and he was not to be denied. His 308 screaming at full chat later enabled him later to pass Butler and Ben Cartwright quite easily at the end of the long Revett Straight on his way to third place, posting the fastest lap time of the day, 1:22.983.

Dave Tomlin was also now on a mission and by mid race he also caught and passed Butler and Cartwright though he would struggle to make inroads on Goddard until the latter’s engine started to cough forcing him to back off and let Tomlin through to snatch second place before the finish.
Fred Honnor and Peter Everingham were having an epic tussle for much of the race and they finished in fifth and sixth places after some fantastic close racing that saw Fred just nip by Peter into the Russell Chicane on the last lap.

While all this was going on Jim Cartwright had led convincingly from the first lap and was a very worthy winner, finishing comfortably ahead of Tomlin and Goddard. Jim C took Class 4 honours, Tomlin, Class 3; Goddard Class 2, with William Moorwood again winning Class 1.

As for all the car damage, well, what can one say? It left everyone with a very sour taste indeed. It's supposed to be an enjoyable Club series, not a training ground for the BTCC.