Saturday 26 June
Arnage, Tertre Rouge and Maison Blanche - all corners synonymous with endurance racing at this time of year. Melbourne, Bomb Hole and Coram are not. But with the 24 Hours of Le Mans postponed until August, we found ourselves setting our crosshairs on Norfolk for PistonHead's annual endurance-racing fix in June.
Only this time we weren't just spectating at Circuit de la Sarthe - we were competing at Snetterton in the 12 Heures du Norfolk, the third round of MSVR's EnduroKA in 2021. Frankly, we had a crap start to the year with our first DNF at Donington Park, and P33/37 at Cadwell Park thanks to an electrical fault. A far cry from our podiums of 2019 and 2020, so we knew we needed to get ourselves together for our return to Snetterton, where we had landed a spot on the podium in 2019.
The shorter endurance races in the series tend to have the qualifying and the race taking part on the same day, but due to this spectacle being 12 hours long and running from 9:05 to 21:05 on Sunday 27 June, qualifying took place on Saturday. Which was a good thing, as just as we were up to P3 less than halfway through qualifying, our offside driveshaft let go and we were out, before Olly or I even had a chance to drive.
It was starting to feel like another Donington failure - which happened to be where we had sold our spare offside driveshaft to another team. Which we obviously didn't bother replacing. Cue our turn to suck up to our friendly rivals, and, after a bit of eyelash fluttering, Burton Power saved the day with a new part. At least it kept us busy for the rest of the day.
Well, that and checking out Steve H's Cayman that he built with the support of Julian PH from Intelligent Money, to compete in the MSVT SuperCup. And yes, it looks every bit as good in the metal as it does in the pics.
With our competitors climbing the ranks throughout the rest of qualifying as we scrounged parts in the pit lane, we dropped down to start a still respectable P14/45 on Sunday morning. It seemed like almost every car on the grid was being worked on right through Saturday afternoon and many into the evening, so we weren't the only ones grateful of the extra time before race start.
Sunday 27th June
Time to race - after McDonalds, obviously. Sam was the first to take charge of our steed. It only took 10 minutes before the first incident of the race, though, with Frugal Racing rolling out of Murrays. Remarkably the glass remained intact, and it wasn't long before they were back out racing again.
I was up next, thoroughly enjoying having such a packed grid and so many cars to play with. The car felt strong and, with a dry circuit, I was in my comfort zone. I had an hour-long battle with Andy Burton of aforementioned Burton Power, swapping places several times as we picked off back markers, right up until the point that their offside driveshaft also let go. What an odd coincidence - at least they had that spare, right?
Pete was up next but with a bodged re-fuel, our pit strategy was thrown, and it was going to run right down to the wire if we'd have to make another fuel stop on top of what we'd planned. As a result, most of Pete's stint was in fuel conservation mode while trying not to drop too many vital seconds off lap times, drafting off cars in front and getting a helping hand once again from Burton Power, giving us a push down the straights.
Olly followed, slightly apprehensive having not raced since Brands Hatch last year or driven the car with its new set-up. But it wasn't long before he was putting in exceptional lap times and driving for the longest stint of 2hr20, before we called an end to his game of Fuel Light Roulette.
After finishing with a final stint from Pete and Sam, it was a relatively straight forward race for once - apart from a flat tyre within the last half hour, and finishing the race on vapours.
The car felt strong right the way through, we were in good spirits and our recently acquired Intarace communications equipment came into its own again. Watching the car going round in 2019 without being able to speak to the driver seemed to take an eternity and we were always on the edge of our seats, never really knowing how they were getting on or when they were likely to pit. But now, being in constant communication, knowing how much fuel was in the car and how it felt on the track really made a difference. Ultimately, our downfall was our pit stops, with the fuelling taking twice as long as the team we shared a garage with.
Perhaps it's our technique or maybe we just have different fuel jugs to everyone else (bad workmen and all that), but we certainly seemed to be one of the slowest in the pits. And to lose at least a lap with each of the five stops we made, that really is the difference between finishing P6 and being on the podium. It can be hard to believe over 12 hours, but every second really does count - as demonstrated by race winners StuBurn Racing who crossed the finish line just 6.296 seconds ahead of Octane Junkies in second place. Maybe, just maybe, we'll finally bring it all together before the year is out.
Once again, special thanks to Burton Power, Moores Motors, Scuderia Bowron and team PSR for helping us throughout the weekend and keeping us racing.
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