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Snetterton Review
The pressure is on....
After winning the championship in 2007 Absolute Racing will have to up the stakes in 2008 to stay on top come the end of the season, as we are now the team to beat. So over the winter in between seasons all 3 Absolute Racing cars were taken back to the chassis and rebuilt nice and fresh for the start of the season. Unfortunately the 3rd car was not quite finished in time and that meant that team boss Chris Hodgen missed out for this race after he was taken over the seat vacated by Steve Patania the week before the season started.
Testing went quite well as we dialled in the new 2008 aero package. It was creating a lot of down force which was not helping at the super fast Snetterton. It is
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really going to work well at circuits like Cadwell Park and Mallory. The only issue we had was Lee Cunningham's MRI sponsored car was overheating, which was strange as the engine is fresh from the engine builder.
Qualifying
We went into qualifying without having run the new spec Avon tyres and we were hoping that we could get some consistent times from them as we seemed to be down on out and out bhp at the fast Norfolk circuit.
Lee went quicker in qualifying than he did during testing but we still found ourselves nearly 2 seconds from pole after a scintillating lap from series returnee Jeremy Walker in the ex Chris Lewis Comtec run car. With Lee in a solid 3rd place on the grid and reigning champion Steve Savage in 4th we at least had a chance to get a head at the start.
Race
As the lights turned green for the start of the 2008 season the number 1 car sponsored by Bee Bee and driven by Savage must have been dreaming as he got away very slowly with Cunningham looking to turn his 3rd place on the grid into a race lead entering the first corner. In the end it was Jeremy Walker who took the lead with ex Absolute employee David Marshall slotting into 2nd and Lee and close 3rd. Steve had dropped down to 5th but was pushing Chris Kite hard as they came to the esses on lap 1. At the front of the grid Marshall had dived down the inside of Walker as Cunningham looked to capitalise by going down the inside of both of them. Marshall coming out in front and Lee holding station in 3rd. The top 3 pulled away at a rapid pace as Savage worked his way clear of Kite.
On lap 2, Walker had made his way past Marshall and was pulling clear, breaking the lap record on nearly ever lap he did. Lee's race was about to come to an end as the overheating problem had not been fixed as he coasted into the pits with a blown engine.
Savage now up to 3rd place which soon became 2nd when Marshall lost his concentration towards the end of the race and went off at the Russell chicane, a feet he also managed in qualifying as he got to grips with slicks and wings. Steve held on to 2nd place for a while but David's straight-line advantage was too much to hold back as he settled for 3rd and some strong points.
Unfortunately the Sunday race was cancelled due to standing water on the track. This was a plus for Lee as we can solve the engine issue for the next round at Brands Hatch.
With 2 test days before the next round we will hopefully find out how we can gain some more performance.
Hopefully we will be announcing soon a replacement for Steve Patania in the 3rd car.
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