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For this race
weekend it was Barrie that was entering the Goblin
Racing Vento VR6 with Martyn being the Manager,
Mechanic, Driving Standards Coach and general dogs’
body.
We went up early on the Friday to participate in the
testing sessions before the Saturday Qualifying. Barrie
has not raced yet this year and has not raced at
Snetterton for 2 years. Testing was good with the car
running well. An in car video camera was fitted during
the test sessions and this was analysed by Martyn to see
where improvements could be made to Barrie’s racing
lines and braking points.
Saturday qualifying was hot and dry. New front tyres
were fitted to the Vento as they were well worn from the
cars previous outing at Rockingham and the two
Snetterton test sessions. The qualifying went well with
Barrie knocking 0.5 seconds off his best test time due
probably to Martyn’s video analysis and recommendations.
Barrie qualified 15th out of 24, not too
shabby.
It rained overnight Saturday and in the morning we
wondered if we would be getting more rain and would
warrant fitting the wet tyres, especially as we were the
first race of the day at 9:20am. Although it was
overcast there was no further rain after 7:30 am and the
track dried out quickly making it a dry first race.
Not much to report on race one. We had the green flag
lap, lined up on the grid, red lights came on, raised
the revs, red lights went off, dropped the clutch, bang!
Barrie trickled away at a snails pace. It turned out the
offside drive shaft had snapped where it went into the
outer CV joint. It must have been Barrie’s lucky day as
the car that was due to line up behind him did not make
it onto the grid, leaving space for the cars behind to
see that he did not get away and were able to avoid him.
A breakdown or stall on the starting grid often results
in a lot of rear end damage. We managed to borrow a
drive shaft to which we fitted new CV joints to enable
Barrie to get out in race 2.
Had to start race 2 from the very back of the grid in
19th.
This time everything held together and Barrie
made up several places at the start. After a couple of
laps he was following a group of 3 other cars when a
hare, yes a hare, dashed onto the circuit at the start
of the Revett Straight, from the outside of the circuit
and ran straight into the back wheel of the car in
front. It caught the wheel squarely, bounced off and
appeared to be working out which way to go next. Luckily
it stayed on the spot long enough for Barrie to pass it
before it decided to run back the way it came. A very
lucky hare and Barrie was lucky it did run back across
his path. Shame we did not have the in car video. There
was a TV camera on the outside of the circuit near this
point, hope they caught the incident and it gets
screened somewhere. Barrie chased Paul Whinny in his
golf for several laps until he saw his chance to cut
onto the inside line approaching the Russell Bend. Just
as Barrie pulled alongside there was a coming together
but Barrie still managed to pass Paul. With positions
reversed Paul then pursued Barrie to the end of the
race. Barrie finished race 2 in 9th which
will now put him on the points board.
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