Catch us if you can (they couldn’t)

2021 Club Enduro Championship.
Round 4, Snetterton 300.

Round 4 of the 750 Motor Club TEGIWA Club Enduro Championship (to give it it’s full title) was at a very hot Snetterton, where temperatures were over 30C for most of the day.

Qualifying was going to be tricky for everyone, as the 300 layout is a long circuit and each driver needs to chalk up at least three laps to qualify for the race. Throw in 52 cars of varying speeds all trying to find space and you may get only one chance. We managed a couple of representative laps which put us 4th in class, 39th overall.

Alex started and drove a strong stint. He was in 5th early on and was having trouble, battling with a BMW that was slower in the corners, but had a big power advantage. Despite a couple of fantastic moves, he would then be passed on the drive off the corner down Snetterton’s long straights. He was also pushed off the circuit a couple of times, which resulted in a five second time penalty for track limits that was to be added to our total race time at the end.

As the first stint continued the class leading Crook/Livesley Honda Civic pulled into the garage with clutch problems and not long after the Tidmarsh/Webster MX-5 had gearbox issues, so we inherited two places in quick succession.

At about half distance the safety car came out, so that was the perfect opportunity to pit for fuel and the driver change. We managed a great pit stop and I came out in third place. Within two laps I had overtaken another MX-5 to climb to second place, but was 35 seconds behind the leader.

Alex then told me they hadn’t pitted, so when he did, we took the lead. Rory Baptiste – the leader before the stops – was in second place and chasing me down. I would not be able to defend the position on track due to the five second time penalty, so increased my pace to try and hold him off to the end. Thankfully, he was pushing so hard he went off the circuit and dropped about 30 seconds on one lap, so I was able to bring it home for our second win in a row!

We are now equal championship leaders with Crook/Livesley on 30 points each after dropped scores. Baptiste is only a few behind, on 26.

It is a six race championship, with best four races to count, so it is all to play for. The next round is at Silverstone on the International circuit, in only a few weeks. We’re looking forward to it already!