Snetterton 200, June 27th/28th
Henderson takes the chequered flag. All photos courtesy of Jon Elsey
Double victory for Henderson at Snetterton….
For rounds 7 and 8 of the 2015 MX-5 SuperCup, the teams made the trip east to the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk. A track that is largely devoid of undulations and is characterised by its two long straights, but one that remains a challenge for the drivers thanks to the tricky sequences of preceding corners, where a good exit from them is absolutely crucial to setting a fast lap time.
Alan Henderson arrived at Snetterton leading the championship fight by a slender margin from Jonathan Clements and Simon Goddard. Henderson had won one of the races at each of the first 3 meetings so far this season but despite his pace had not yet been able to take victory in both races, could Snetterton be the turning point?
Saturday – Practice
Caird exits the Montreal hairpin during practice
The drivers headed out on circuit early on Saturday morning in perfect weather conditions for their 20 minute Free Practice session. Henderson immediately showed he was on it by quickly getting down into the 1.27 lap bracket, then steadily improving his time to post a blistering 1.26.9 lap around three quarters of the way through session. The times were spread out more than normal through the field, as drivers who had not been able to test on Friday got to grips with their cars once again. George Line put in his best time of the session right on his last lap to take second fastest, ahead of Simon Goddard. While second placed man in the championship Jonathan Clements was down in 8th as he looked to fine tune the set-up of his car.
Qualifying
The weather had stayed bright and sunny all morning at Snetterton, which meant that track and air temperature had both increased noticeably by the time the SuperCup cars went out for qualifying just after lunch. The ultimate pace set in the cooler morning practice would be hard to match, but the drivers were pushing hard as they all vied for the best possible position on the starting grid for Sunday’s first race. A number of times were disallowed during the session for cars exceeding track limits, showing just how close to the edge the drivers were getting.
Munro rounds Coram in qualifying
Henderson was again immediately quick and was able to maintain his advantage over the rest of the field to take pole position with a 1.27.1 lap time, but this time with a much more slender margin of just 0.2 of a second to George Line behind him. The times had closed up right throughout the field in qualifying, in a very fast session that saw the top 7 cars all posting lap times better than the race lap record set the previous year. Jonathan Clements had now managed to dial-in the set-up of his car and took 3rd fastest in the session just a fraction behind the time set by Line, closely followed by Simon Goddard, an excellent performance from Garry Townsend in 5th place and then Liam Murphy.
Rob Way qualified a creditable 17th in the first event for his newly built car, after having missed all of the beginning of the season due to a hand injury.
Sunday – Race 1
The skies had become overcast by Sunday morning as the drivers took their places on the grid for the start of race 1, but the weather held as they set off on the green flag lap.
When the lights went out, Henderson made a clean get away from pole position while Line who had been alongside him on the front row misjudged the start and bogged down as he pulled away. This allowed Goddard and Clements to beat him on the run to the first sweeping right hander of Riches.
Locking of the brakes on cold tyres from Line and Goddard sent them wide at the tight Montreal hairpin on the first lap, forcing Clements wide on the outside with them and allowing Murphy up the inside into second place. This gave Henderson a gap of around 5 car lengths to the chasing pack and demoted Line down to 5th as the cars jostled for position.
Murphy heads the field of chasing cars behind leader Henderson
As the cars crossed the start finish line for the first time, spots of rain began to fall over the circuit causing a number of the cars to dip a wheel onto the grass on the exit of the first corner as they struggled for grip. The worsening conditions allowed Henderson to just slightly extend his lead over Murphy and Goddard in second and third but a fantastic battle was developing in the midfield. A group of 9 cars headed by Line who was now back up to 4th, down to Munro in 12th was covered by less than two seconds at the end of lap 2! With Line, Goddard and Aspinall 3 abreast over the start/finish line as they race down to the first corner.
As the group of cars braked for the slow Montreal hairpin on lap 3, the pack concertinaed and nose to tail contact along the train pushed Aspinall, Newnam and Munro into a spin and sent Andy Coombs up onto two wheels as he made contact with the spinning car of Munro. The resulting mayhem forced several cars to retire as the result of damage and brought out the safety car to allow the marshals to clear up debris.
When the safety car pulled in, Murphy managed to stick with Henderson for a couple of laps and looked like he may have challenged for the lead but dropped back in the latter stages as he struggled with a gearbox issue and was forced to settle for third place at the finish. Goddard had to defend from Line after the race was resumed, with Line managing to take 3rd place away from Goddard on lap 9 before being involved in an incident which dropped him down the order and for which he was later excluded from the results.
At the flag it was Henderson who took a comfortable victory from Goddard and Murphy, with Clements managing to bring his car across the line in 4th to minimise Henderson’s gain in points over him.
Henderson stands on the top step of the Race 1 podium
Race 2
Great work from the teams saw all of the retirees from race 1 take to the track again for race 2, but this time much of the track was already damp thanks to the earlier rain. Jonathan Clements starting in 4th had a brilliant opening lap to lead from Alan Henderson by over a second at the start/finish line for the beginning of lap 2.
Spray flies up as the cars race from the start
Henderson was able to gradually reel in Clements though until he was pressing Clements hard for the lead of the race. Henderson latched right onto Clements rear bumper following him by just 0.103 of a second at the end of lap 6 and looking for any opportunity to snatch first place. The enormous pressure from Henderson finally became too much as Clements pushed too hard into Riches and ran wide onto the grass, his slight mistake losing him a couple of seconds and gifting the lead to Henderson.
Clements and Henderson battle for the lead
Clements gave it everything he could to try and close the gap to the leader and went on to set the fastest lap of the race but it wasn’t enough to make up the deficit, Henderson once again leading the field home to become the first double winner of the season so far.
Liam Murphy managed to get the better of Simon Goddard in their brilliant race long battle that was nip and tuck throughout, and he was took the final podium spot of the weekend. As always in the SuperCup, there was a very close fight in the middle of the pack over the positions at the lower end of the top 10 with Caird having a great drive following his race 1 DNF to finish in front of Townsend, Tamplin, Irving and Coombs in that particular fight.
Henderson’s double victories at Snetterton has allowed him to extend his lead at the top of the championship table now that we’ve reached the mid-point of the season, but he is still just a few points ahead of Clements and Goddard. Next the championship moves onto Cadwell Park on the 18th and 19th of June for the first of our triple header meetings, a good or a bad weekend for the championship challengers at Cadwell with the extra race could have a big effect on the points table. So we can expect the MX-5 SuperCup racing to be just as close and frantic as ever!
