Rounds 7 & 8 Snetterton 7/8th June 2008
After the torrential rain of Rockingham, Oliver was looking for some sunshine in Norfolk, unfortunately that did not arrive until the Sunday, resulting in very wet testing, practice, qualifying and race 1. The car worked well in the wet conditions and Oliver went out to bed some brakes in on Saturday morning and the car was 8th quickest.
Photo GalleryQualifying was on a greasy circuit and Nick qualified the car in 7th place for race 1 and first Viper with a 1m20.492s lap. Oliver qualified against the other grade A drivers and the Viper’s did not fair so well. Oliver qualified 13th, 1 thousandth off Paul O’neill in the sister car, but importantly in front of Jon Barnes in the championship leading Brookspeed Viper, with a 1m20. 430s lap.
Race 1
The rain looked as if it was lifting at the start of Saturday’s race, so Oliver and Nick chose worn wet tyres in the hope that a drying track would allow those tyres to work well. However, this was not the case and despite a glimpse of sunshine on the grid, the rain returned in anger. Nick drove solidly in his stint and got the car up to 6th place. The rain continued and Nick pitted to hand to Oliver during a safety car period. Oliver resumed and as the safety car pulled in, he had a brief dice with the Brookspeed Viper before it was evident that the lower tread on the wet tyres was causing the car to aquaplane. It became a real challenge just to keep the car on the circuit and the car fell down the order to a disappointing 12th place. The sister car faired even worse, finishing in 14th place and indicating that the setup on the RPM Viper’s did not work well on flooded conditions!
Race 2
Sunday saw sunshine for the first time all weekend and Oliver completed the morning warm up in order to scrub some brand new slicks for the race. Without pushing, the car was 9th quickest and felt consistent; the dry circuit would suit the Viper in the race. Oliver started the race and had a great battle with Michael Bentwood in the Aston Martin DBRS9 the first few laps, whilst holding off the Lamborghini of Tom Ferrier. Oliver then went on to catch and pass Matt Griffin, in the Chad Racing Ferrari 430, before moving passed Anthony Reid’s similar car. Oliver then caught and passed Marco Mapelli before pitting at the half way mark to hand to Nick.
Nick had not driven a dry lap of the circuit so far this weekend and his first flying lap was 1m12.3s lap compared with Oliver’s race best of 1m.11.2s. This looked promising and Oliver hoped that the next lap would be in the 11’s allowing Nick to reel in the remaining B grade drivers in front. Unfortunately Nick was unable to improve on this time and his form from the wet race on Saturday was not present. Nick slipped back to 8th place at the flag to claim the last points paying position. The Capelli/Cullen Ferrari that Oliver pitted in front off went on to finish 4th so a good result was possible although this proved not to be the case and Oliver and Nick left Snetterton very disappointed.
Thruxton is the next circuit on the calendar and good results are long overdue.
- Categories: 2008 Season, News
- Tags: Snetterton