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News: Snetterton Race Report
GAZ Shocks Production BMW Championship
Rounds 6&7 Snetterton 13-14/06/2009
Snetterton, in Norfolk was the host of the 6th & 7th rounds of the 2009 Gaz Shocks Production BMW Championship.
Qualifying saw the current Championship leader Rob Smith grab pole, with Clint Bardwell setting the 2nd fastest time but not starting 2nd due to being a reserve. This meant Alan Wileman inherited 2nd on the grid, however almost 1s slower than Smith.
Round 6
Race 1 saw pole-man Smith lead away the field from Wileman, but as they crossed the line at the end of lap 1, Wileman had dropped to 3rd place as Tony Smith had taken 2nd from Wileman.
Further back, the backmarkers had started their climb up the field, with Neil Adams having made up 3 places from his starting position, and ending the lap 35th, while Peter Longworth was also on the climb up the field, after starting 36th on the grid. This wasn’t the first time Longworth had found himself having to recover after qualifying, he found himself in the same situation at Castle Combe!
Lap 2 – as Rob Smith was getting away from the chasing pack, the battle for 2nd was heating up as Wileman took it back from Tony Smith, however, the gap to the leader was already up at 0.763s. The 4th placed driver, Tim Wilson, had made his way from 6th on the grid within the opening 2 laps. However, on the other side of the coin, the 3rd place started, Miles Howard, was falling down the field and was down to 8th after 2 laps.
As the race went on, Rob Smith continued to lead and pull out an advantage over Wileman and Smith, who were still fighting over 2nd and there was never more than half a second between the 2 of them for 3 laps, and by the 5th lap, Alan Wileman was just over 2.5s off Rob Smith.
Further back, after starting 36th in a 38 car field, Peter Longworth was up to 24th by the end of lap 5. Steven Gilbert had also been on the move and had made it up to 25th, after being towards the back after the 1st lap. Gilbert had started 22nd, but was 35th at the end of lap 5 and would retire on lap 6.
The main excitement of the race happened on lap 7, Miles Howard, who was 29th at the end of lap 6 went straight off at the Russell Chicane and put his car straight into the barrier. This meant that Russell became a Yellow Flag zone.
Lap 9 saw the race red-flagged as 2 separate incidents and 2 of the biggest braking corners left the track covered in debris from the separate incidents, oil and other fluids.
Up at the Esses, Jack Gabriel and Lawrie Dunster made contact as Gabriel tried to pass for position. This caused Dunster to lose control of his car, fishtail across the track. As all of this happened, it went that all the racers behind were held up and had to find alternative ways to pass the incident, which also saw Stephen Carter broadside on the track.
All of this led to a lot of damaged cars, including Dunsters and Richard Thomas.
While all of this was going on up at The Esses, Matt Urlwin was having an incident down at Russell, going into the back of the stranded car of Miles Howard, this meant the red flags came out as Urlwin’s car was close to the track and in a dangerous place.
After all of this, Rob Smith took another race win by 7.640s from Alan Wileman with the final step on the podium filled by Tim Wilson, who took 3rd on the final lap from Tony Smith.
Due to his drive from 36th to 22nd, Peter Longworth was awarded the MSAR Safety Driver of the Day.
Race Results:
1. Rob Smith – 8laps in 12mins 05.279
2. Alan Wileman @ 7.640s
3. Tim Wilson @ 7.858s
Fastest Lap: Rob Smith – 1m29.039 on lap 2.
Image by Jon Bryant of Snappyracers.com
Round 7
Race 2 saw Race 1 pole-man and race winner Rob Smith start on pole again with Race 1 runner up Alan Wileman start alongside Smith on the front row. After the incidents of Race 1, the cars of Richard Thomas and Miles Howard were unable to take the start of the race, which gave Nick Barke and Ian Russell the chance to have a race.
From the start, Smith lead away with Wileman behind with Tim Wilson in 3rd, the top 3 from race 1 filling the top 3 spots at the end of lap 1. Starting right from the back, Nick Barke had a stormer of an opening lap and found himself 28th, making up an impressive 10 places on one lap.
As the race went on, Rob Smith was constantly lapping quicker than all of his nearest challengers and was able to pull away from the chasing pack, while the action behind was frantic, Andrew Cotterill lost 2 places on lap 2 to Mike Jones and Andrew Partridge.
Nick Barke was up to 23rd at the end of lap 2, from 38th and last on the grid. Ian Russell had made it as far as 34th at the end of lap 1 before dropping back to 36th at the end of lap 2.
Race 1 star Peter Longworth wasn’t having such a good race, and was dead last after 2 laps.
As Rob Smith pulled away from the pack, things were closing up between Alan Wileman and Tony Smith, and at the end of lap 4, Smith had passed Wileman for 2nd place, and Tim Wilson was starting to drop back from the top 3, in 4th place.
Lap 5 saw Wileman reclaim 2nd from Tony Smith, but both were falling well back from Rob Smith, who on that lap lapped over 1s faster than Wileman, and opened up a gap of 2.8s.
Nick Barke, still on his recovery drive had made it as far as 19th at the end of the 5th lap, and right on the tail of Matt Urlwin, who had made it out after the Race 1 incident.
Lap 6 saw Rob lap another 2s faster than Smith and Wileman, who were still having their own little battle for 2nd, and leaving Smith with an advantage of 5s. Nick Barke made up another 2 places on Lap 6, meaning he was 17th and chasing John Jacklin for 16th.
By the 9th lap, Rob Smith was 5.3s ahead of the chasing pack, and seemingly heading for another dominant victory, while the scrap for 2nd wasn’t over, with Tony Smith still holding it from Alan Wileman, but this would all change on the last lap.
As Rob was crossing the line to claim victory, chaos was happening at Russell. Alan Wileman made contact with Tony Smith, trying to regain 2nd, this held up Liam Crilly and Mike Dugdale. In avoidance of all this, Tim Wilson took to the grass and crossed the line 2nd with Wileman 3rd, with Smith having an 11.488s gap. However, the stewards took a dim attitude towards this, and gave Wilson a 10s time penalty for cutting the chicane and also gave Wileman a 10s penalty for the contact.
The 10s penalties saw Wilson classified 6th overall and Wileman 9th overall.
Due to his outstanding drive from 38th and last to 15th in 10 laps, Nick Barke was awarded the MSAR Safety Driver Of the Day Award.
As a result, Rob Smith still leads the Championship with 204 points, Liam Crilly is 2nd on 174 points with Tony Smith 3rd on 155 points.
The next rounds of the season are at Cadwell Park on the 28th June.
Race Results:
1. Rob Smith – 10 laps in 15m 02.808s
2. Tony Smith @ 14.904s
3. Liam Crilly @ 15.184s
Fastest Lap: Rob Smith in 1m28.756s on lap 3.
Race Report by Matt Auger (matt_macau_bmw320si@hotmail.com)
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