Production Touring Car Trophy – Snetterton

Qualifying :: ::

It was competitive throughout the 20 minute session at a dry but slightly cloudy Snetterton but at least the pre 10am start meant temperatures weren’t too high.

Having had a good Friday practise, Adrian Churchill with no ballast on board was lapping in the 1:21’s and on lap 5 of a total of 6 put together a 1:20.922 to take pole.

2nd to 6th was very hard fought with places constantly changing. Kevin George in our sister Astra had second for most of the session but slipped to 6th by just 0.005 sec with 3 tenths covering 2nd to 6th.

Kevin came into the pits to allow his tyres to cool and with 2 minutes of qualifying left went out for one final lap, and found 4 tenths extra posting a 1:21.950, the only other car to get into the 1 minute 21’s.

A great start to the weekend.

Qualifying Results Snetterton
Qualifying Results Snetterton

Race One :: :: A flag to flag race saw Adrian Churchill set off from pole in the Courtenay Sport Astra, followed by Kevin George in the sister Astra VXR. Adrian set a high standard to take the win and grab fastest lap (1:21.870) and Kevin, in his first race in the car, put in a superb performance to take second.

Further back Bensley saw third place slip from him on lap 5 with both McMillan (Seat Leon) and Cook (Renault Megane) getting past, with this order completing the top 5 at race end.

Race 1 Results Snetterton
Race 1 Results Snetterton

Race Two :: :: Adrian was now carrying maximum ballast for race 2. Again starting from pole he made a good start and had a flag to flag to flag race, again taking the win and fastest lap (1:21.950) with the remaining podium and points places being hard fought.

Kevin George in the Courtenay Sport sister Astra VXR started 2nd with 36kg of ballast on board and for the first two laps had slipped to 3rd. On lap 3 Kevin took 2nd from Cook’s Megane who held 3rd with McMillan’s Leon in 4th. Hayden’s Megane held 5th for 6 laps until he started to slide down the order from lap 7

Bensley started 5th and slipped to 8th by the end of lap 1, managing to pass Girling on lap 3 for 7th and got to 6th on lap 7, before slipping down the order with mechanical issues.

McMillan took 3rd on lap 9 for the final podium place, from Cook who held 4th while Duckman (Leon) took 5th.

Race 2 Results Snetterton
Race 2 Results Snetterton

Race Three :: :: Adrian picked 5 as the random number after race 2, thus placing him 5th on the grid for Race 3 still with a maximum of 45kg of ballast, Kevin starting in 4th again with 36kg of ballast on board with Duckman being promoted to pole, Cook 2nd and McMillan 3rd. So the stage was set.

A hard charge off the line saw Duckman slip back a place or two and it was 3 abreast along the straight with Churchill alongside Carnaby alongside Girling heading towards the first corner.

Churchill managed to get 4th up the inside into Riches tucking in behind Duckman, McMillan and Cook. Kevin George took to the grass out of Riches as track space was limited and slipped to 9th giving himself some work to do for the rest of the race. Girling had got into 5th after starting 8th due to the frantic nature of the charge down to Riches.

Settling into a rhythm, Churchill started to press on with his lap times, passing Duckman on lap 3 at the end of the Senna Straight into Riches by jinking from the inside line, to outside line and instantly back to the inside which saw him gain enough extra momentum into Riches to take the place, while further back George was up to 7th.

Churchill now 2.5 seconds off the lead slipped into 2nd on lap 4 taking the place from Cook’s Megane and set about chasing down McMillan in the lead Seat, meanwhile Kevin edged up from 8th on lap 4 to 5th on lap 8.

Churchill was pressing on hard closing down McMillan’s Seat, which had a top speed edge down the Bentley Straight, but on lap 8 Churchill got the tow down the straight out of Montreal and got the inside line into Brundle. Sadly the Seat went into limp mode shortly after and retired.

Kevin George passed Girling’s Astra VXR (which was a non finisher) on lap 9 for 4th place and took he fight to Duckman for the final podium place even taking to 3 wheels at Murrays in his attempts to get past, but despite a valiant effort the Seat was just too wide. Despite just missing out on the final podium place, Kevin was charging hard and took the extra point for fastest lap on lap 10 with a 1:21.521.

All in all an exciting and very successful weekend’s racing with great drives all round with brilliant results. A massive thank you to all our supporters and to the whole team.

Race 3 Reults Snetterton
Race 3 Results Snetterton

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