BARC Dunlop Motorsport News Saloon Car Championship
Snetterton - October 2nd and 3rd
 

Despite a low turnout the racing at Snetterton proved to be as entertaining as usual. In qualifying Darren Bly set a blistering pace annexing pole position from Mark Biggers in his similar Nissan. Meanwhile Rod lined up third but there were long faces in our camp as the engine had developed a misfire.

Before the first race Stewart and Barry changed various electrical components on our car, but as soon as the race started it became apparent that a cure had not been found. As Rod fell back to eighth everyone could hear that all was not well. However, undeterred by this problem Rod set about the task in hand and gradually hauled himself back into contention. Trying to avoid the area where the misfire was worst (at about 5000rpm) he picked off the midfield runners and closed on Ray Barrow for second place. In the end the gap was 0.7 of a second.

Biggers took the race win after Bly was black/orange flagged when his engine started to dispense oil. Barrow took a fine second overall (and first in class B) with Rod third. Gavin Thomson had a fairly lonely run to fourth and first in class C with his Peugeot 205, easily holding off the supercharged 306 Peugeot of Ashley Hargreaves. The next group contained four cars who were separated by just 1.5 seconds. After much place swapping Bill Richards headed home Andy Woods-Dean, Richard Brent and Stephen Dann. Eric Falce and Paul Eve completed the finishers, as David Hughes had his bonnet fly up on the pace lap. Graham Richardson had a driveshaft failure on the first lap which meant he watched the race from the Bomb Hole.

During the evening we discovered a broken retaining bracket on the fuel rail which was allowing air into the system. With help from Ray Barrow and Woody, amongst others, we rectified the fault with a “belt and braces” repair. With fingers crossed Rod charged off at the start of race two and sure enough the misfire was cured. However, the boost control had been disconnected and with just 1.5 bar he could not stay with the mighty Nissan. Hats off to Mark who drove a fine race to secure his second DMN win. With Rod second, Barrow took third albeit 52 seconds further back and he also won the driver of the day prize. Thomson drove another good race to take fourth, with Dann the final unlapped runner in fifth. Steve shed his passenger side window on the Revitt Straight which allowed a bit of extra ventilation. Richards came home sixth after Ashley Hargreaves had a wishbone break going into Russell corner. With his car stranded very close to the track the race was prematurely halted by the red flag. Woody took seventh hot on Bill’s heels with Paul Eve having a much better run to take eighth with his Sapphire. Paul won the best prepared car award. Brent came home a subdued ninth nursing a failing differential with Richardson tenth in his Nova. Hughes repaired his bonnet and rounded out the finishers.