Caterham Academy Round Five: Snetterton
Riggers gets stuck in as the Academy gets competitive
Dealing with a spot of rain in qualifying...
For some reason, the light showers that had been forecast for that morning failed to materialise and it was with crossed fingers and the merest spits of rain in the air - not enough to even moisten a fairly warm track - that we dutifully waited at the assembly area in the paddock for our qualifying session to begin.
Eventually we all filed out onto the circuit - and within five minutes the rain, which had held off all morning - decided to fall. Having backed off on the previous lap to leave a nice big empty space in front of me, I was pretty dismayed to find enough water dropping out of the sky to warrant continuous use of the windscreen wipers. 'Oh well,' I thought, 'might as well hope it's not enough to reduce the grip level'.
...it proved hard not to do this
It only really rained on the first two or three corners, but that was enough to make the middle part of qualifying an exercise in merely trying to stay on track. By the end of the session it was more or less dry again - but I doubt you'd find any of my fellow competitors who felt they couldn't have gone faster, given more time. At the end of it I found myself sitting in seventh place for the start of the race - a lot better than my previous race at Rockingham (12th) - and with third to seventh spots separated by just 0.1secs.
Appropriate words don't really exist to describe how manic the first few corners of the race felt. Breathlessly frenetic will have to do, but the picture (right) probably tells you all you need to know - taken halfway round the lap, it includes everybody from second down to twelfth places...
Eventually the pack thinned out a little, with me at the head of a pack of midfield cars, with the top five having pulled out quite a gap. I managed to break free from the following pack, and spent several laps chasing down the leaders - who were conveniently squabbling among themselves and thus slowing each other down.
The gap from 2nd to 12th on the first lap
Passing Ross was easy enough, courtesy of a nice wide circuit and a big hole punched in the air giving me a big slipstream. Getting him off my tail and chasing down fourth-placed Tim Abbott proved impossible.
There was a moment when third-placed Kurt Brady took an off-road route, allowing me to get alongside him into the Russell chicane. Sadly, short of putting him in the wall along the pit straight, there was nothing I could to but let him back past, causing me to briefly surrender my fifth place to Mr Macindoe once again.
Battle for the lead went to the wire
Up front, Chris Bingham eventually took a controversial victory over Rockingham winner Martin Pass, who was demoted to second place for having been deemed to gain the lead by cutting a corner.
At Rockingham, we were more less accused of being too polite in our racing. At Snetterton, we asked for no quarter, and gave even less...
 Things get tough for riggers on the last lap |
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. Also, Kurt had to drive his car home afterwards - I have the luxury of a trailer.... Also, Kurt had to drive his car home afterwards - I have the luxury of a trailer...Tim
one thing though, after the race, give the marshals a wave.
don't think i saw one driver wave at the marshals after the race.
show some appreciation for the job they do, one day they will save your life.
most of the drivers looked at the marshals on the outside of russel waving and then looked away. I'm sure being novices you're unaware of the waving at marshals tradition.
one thing though, after the race, give the marshals a wave.
don't think i saw one driver wave at the marshals after the race.
show some appreciation for the job they do, one day they will save your life.
most of the drivers looked at the marshals on the outside of russel waving and then looked away. I'm sure being novices you're unaware of the waving at marshals tradition.
one thing though, after the race, give the marshals a wave.
don't think i saw one driver wave at the marshals after the race.
show some appreciation for the job they do, one day they will save your life.
most of the drivers looked at the marshals on the outside of russel waving and then looked away. I'm sure being novices you're unaware of the waving at marshals tradition.
So here's a big one for any marshals that myself or my fellow Academicals missed:
Still disappointed by my own bad luck but I echo what's been said on here about the marshalls. 'Unfortunately', I got to meet a few of them on the outside of Coram and having arrived really upset, I left having had a bit of a laugh with them.
Looking forward to Brands.
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