With a Production S1 Double Header of 2 x 20 minutes and a 3 hour Britcar race Snetterton was always going to be a busy day for the team.
In Production S1 Mike Gardiner qualified the trusty M3 second alongside the very rapid Super-charged Exige. In Race 1 Mike got the drop on the Exige at the start and built up a comfortable gap in the opening laps on cold tyres. As the rest of the field of M3s and the Exige settled into a rhythm the gap stabilised at about 8 seconds. Although never comfortable, Mike was able to maintain the lead to the flag.
In Race 2 Mike started from pole and was never headed. A safety car right at the end to retrieve an errant bumper lead to a tense last two laps. Mike's years of race experience allowed him to see off the hard charging Exige. After four races and four victories in the series Mike leads Production S1 heading to the Spa 4 hour race.
In Britcar regular comrades Gary Coulson and Hubert Hinklehoffer concentrated on preserving the car in qualifying and scrubbing tyres. With 180 minutes of Snetterton to run the team opted to run for as long as possible with Gary Coulson leading off. Steady progress and the helpful intervention of an early safety car to rebunch the field led to the car lying 5th in class after an hour. As the second hour wore on a number of class competitors made their first pitstop, the class leading Volvo hit terminal problems and the Civic Type-R was up to 2nd in class. With the deployment of the safety car to intervene in another incident the team called the car in for its only pitstop of the afternoon. Hubert took over in a comfortable position. As the cars that had to make a second stop pitted the car returned to the top 3 and a class podium position. A brief shower and the loss of second gear lead to the hard charging Mike Wilds overtaking the Civic in the BMW 320i for the final class podium slot. The Civic Type-R boys head to Oulton next lying 3rd in class in the championship.
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Contact: Richard Moore - 07939 569027 or Paul Fenton - 07801 417931 |