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Snetterton 2026 - July 18th

I thought I would introduce a written report... to help make sense of the clips. Hope you all like it. One of my pit crew has written the Silverstone one I will publish next week.

After our inaugural at Cadwell Park the month earlier, we found in the inter race inspection that we’d snapped off both rear damper mounts – new brackets and a load of my best welding later – we were better than new.
The Snetterton 300 circuit is a totally different kettle of fish from Cadwell Park, it’s a huge wide, fast and long circuit that’s totally flat. Two long straights dominate proceedings with long sweeping bends and several tight hairpins to deal with.
Cadwell had given my first taste of the hustle and bustle of standing grid starts… this time it was going to be rolling starts. That’s a new experience.

We arrived on Friday night and set up in the last garage, we knew were going to be sharing but it was going to be last come last squeeze in by the looks of it. None of the luxury of a day’s orientation watching how things run, it was going to be straight into qualifying first thing Saturday morning. So we set up straight outside the pit leaving the trailer hooked up to the race van. Luckily our bunk beds arriving literally just in time to get fitted and used for this weekend. This weekend also saw a better opportunity to see how the batter power station worked out running the fridge and microwave – this weekend being highly useful for subsequent capacity calculations.
Early rise on Saturday morning, straight on with the race suit and into new drivers briefing.

Qualifying was a combination of learning the circuit whilst also getting more accustomed to the sensation of higher speeds. Also gaining more familiarity with the braking capabilities of the car. Still managed to stay ahead of one of the Roadster Lightweights but several seconds off the trio ahead of me, two Roadster Lightweight’s and a 3.9 v8 leading the class.

On the grid for race 1 I was alongside Nigel in his Blue and Silver Roadster Lightweight. The weather was looking ominous with dark cloud front nearly upon us. A bit of novice error exiting turn one, leaving too much track on the outside saw Nigel sneak past as we drove into the rain front. A couple of spin out’s happening in the next 500m of track saw two competitors having to start a fight from the back. The first tiptoe round lap gave way to dry racing as the circuit rapidly dried in the heat… and speeds along with confidence rose. My focus was clawing back the spot I’d lost to Nigel in the first bend… and after several more laps I’d reeled him in and was on his bumper. In retrospect, this was probably not the best approach to mounting an overtake but I didn’t really appreciate that at the time. As far as I was concerned, I was on his bumper and trying to find a way past. This approach didn’t give the TV sweeping past opportunity you have in your mind, the Roadsters V6 has too much torque out of the corners for the little 4Cyl to make up or with revs. So it became a sort of game of chicken into the corners… suffice to say, that’s a game the little 4/4 with it’s low weight and super brakes was going to win against a car easily 100kg heavier. With a bit of a confidence chat, I managed to shoot up the inside into the same turn 1 I’d lost the position on and out braked Nigel holding the car on the black top and getting round on tenterhooks. In the revelry moment nearly overcooking the next corner resulting in a huge (it felt huge)… drift moment with Nigel after the race noting I was maybe handing the spot back to him. However, with a bit of opposite lock and trim of the throttle, I managed to hold onto it and steadily lap by lap headed off in search of the Roadsters in front of me. Unfortunately they’d scampered too far ahead for me to catch them but it gave me confidence that I could maybe keep up with them in Race 2.

With the DNF’s and drop out’s I was ahead on the grid and this time along side Peter Cole in the Yellow and Silver Roadster. My target to hang on to. My Race 2 Grid alignment discipline let me down from the start line… handing Peter the slot ahead of me with no challenge (bottom kicking myself for next time). Nigel even managed to sneak past again, though it was only a couple of turns before he relinquished the position with the aim of getting a tow around to see if we could both keep up with our class compadre’s. The field ahead of them was a bit bunched with mid field traffic and whilst this lasted, I could hold on to them but present little challenge, the little 4/4 getting out blasted from the corners and late braking not enough to compensate for an ever widening gap. In the end, stalemate, with me now a considerable distance ahead of Nigel and myself too far back from the Roadster ahead to pose any threat. That’s where it ended despite putting everything into trying to catch the roadsters it just wasn’t going to happen today.
I don’t despair however, we were still running our initial baseline chassis setup and whilst we didn’t quite have the grunt to match, with a clear run in the corners, the car could pull the revs to hold its own close enough. We’re 24Kg’s over class 4 weight too, something we can think about for the future.

For now, it was another reliable weekend – my main observation from Cadwell and Snetterton was finishing is the most important marker of success. With mechanical DNF’s with several cars not finishing both race weekends. We’ve managed 6 sessions, plus shakedown with good reliability overall. I’ve kept out of the way of the faster drivers and had my own race objectives set out each time.
Now we pack up quickly as we’re turfed out of the pit garages for the Sunday racers to move in. Choosing to annex into the infield camping area for the night, recover before the long drive home Sunday. Already thinking of the post-race check over and setup changes ahead of Silverstone, a track I’ve driven during our shakedown.

Watch our Snetterton Race Video here: [url] [\url]