I had a week off after racing at Anglesey in the RoadSports Series and 750MC Club Enduro, then we were heading to Snetterton for the first round of the BRSCC Audi TT Cup Racing, as well as another round of the ClubSport Trophy on the Sunday. I also received a message from Chris at AxiaMetrics with an offer to jump in his FunCup on the Saturday. He has teamed up with my friend Simon Rudd, who I met whilst racing in the FocusCup. A good old reunion!
Luke Handley and Carl Swift, who we race against in the 750MC races were entering the TTCR races as well. Luke has built my TT for me, and had finally got his TT ready after a lot of trouble, including a new engine after the other expired at Blyton in testing. This would be the first time out since the new lump was fitted.

I was hoping to emulate my previous success in the TT at Oulton, which you can read about below:

Below is the layout of the Snetterton 300 Circuit:

For the TTCR everyone is in the same equipment, but there is a Masters Class for the 'more life experienced' racers. I would be in the regular class.
For the ClubSport Trophy, TT would be running in Class B - Sport Pro, which is a maximum of 205bhp/tonne with the driver. Class A - Elite is 206bhp to 235bhp/tonne. Tyres are MSUK 1A / 1B/ 1C so I will be using the Yokohama A052 instead of the TTCR spec Nankang NS-2Rs.
The BRSCC uses TSL for all the timing info, so the results can be found using TSL link.
Luke has done a quick VLog of the weekend which you can watch on YouTube:

Testing

This time I opted to do the afternoon session in the TT, as well as jump in the FunCup for a few laps as well.
This proved to be a bit of a mistake. The first few flying laps I did in the TT were great, with a time of 2:13.5. This was a decent amount quicker than everyone else I spoke to, so my confidence for Saturday was high. I then ran across to get some laps in the FunCup. It was so much more difficult to drive than the previous cars I had driven, and I was having to completely change my driving style to suit it. I was miles away from Simon's benchmarks.
Luke also managed to kill another engine after 1 lap in testing. Many phonecalls later, an engine was on its way from Bradford!
I then went back out in the TT and lost the back end at Brundle, smashing into the barrier on the inside of the corner. Not ideal! So the lads were doing a front end on mine and an engine removal on Luke's!

FunCup

Qualifying in the FunCup is pretty meaningless as the grid is drawn out of a hat. We spent the time practicing pitstops as that is where all the time is gained.
Into the race, I did the 3rd stint and was still a fair way off Simon at the start, but towards the end I was punching in some good times against his blistering pace (we held the fastest lap for a while). I still was 0.5s off him which is not great. I was then due to go in for the last stint, hopefully with a sprint towards a podium position. It looked like an easy 4th at least for us. I'd commented on the Geartronics shifter being extremely violent several times during the weekend. I should have shut up as just after Simon set his fastest lap of the race, the clutch decided to crap it's pants. Game over.

TTCR Qualifying

Luke's engine was in by early morning in time for scrutineering. The lads did a great job to get it sorted.
I knew Qualifying was not going to be as easy as the last few races I have done, so it was time to push hard. I messed up not giving myself enough space for the first lap and had traffic towards the end, so I only did a 2:14.888. That put me on pole for around 30s before Carl stole it! I improved to a 2:14.533 but that was still miles off my time I had done in testing the previous day.
Even so, if I had emulated that time, I would have only moved up 1 place on the grid. Carl put in a mega 2:13.168 towards the end of his stint, securing pole.
Luke just did 3 laps to make sure the engine didn't grenade again, but didn't finish at the back, much to his surprise!

Qualifying Lap

My fastest qualifying lap is shown below:

Looking at what everyone else did, I needed to find some space and just smash round, getting the tyres up to temp and experimenting with different lines. I know for next time.

Pole changed hands a few times over the course of the session, shame I was up there early on instead of later!

TTCR Race 1

I'd been in the FunCup again between Qualifying and Race 1, so I was going to need to recalibrate myself to a completely different car. I also needed to figure out how to launch the car on the NS-2Rs. Every launch I had done so far was on A052s. Row 3 was not where I wanted to be, but I guess it could have been worse. Anthony Park and Richard Sanders had failed the minimum weight requirement so were sent to the back of the grid. A few others had done it but only marginally so they were let off. A few failed ride height and were let off as well, so Ant and Rich were not very happy about it.

I had probably the worst start I have ever had, dropping 3 or 4 spaces and almost having Luke get round me from P11! I dragged myself back to P6 where I was pretty lonely until Richard Forber in the Direnza car had a nightmare with his brakes and dropped back.

So I was back to where I started, but 8.2s off the lead. Not ideal. Carl had been bullied back to P3 as well. Ross Makar's Martini car just dragging him down the straights!

Carl lost the lead on lap 1, then had also been caught by Edgecumbe with 2 laps to go. Luke did amazing and ended up finishing P6 behind me, but another 8s behind.

My laptimes were pretty consistent, but still too slow compare to the mid 13's of the guys in front, and Makar's low 13's and 12's in the lead!

TTCR Race 2

The following race grid is determined by the race positions, no reversing or messing around, so I was back in P5 but this time with Luke at the side of me and Carl just in front.

Well Luke was supposed to be at the side of me, but he had a slight incident on the green flag lap, that put him out of the race!
I had a much better start this time, and was up to 3rd by the end of lap 1 after Makar made a terrible start. I was quickly overtaken by Makar and Maguire on Lap 2, putting me back in 5th. Makar then had an issue with his clutch and dropped back, promoting me to 4th. It stayed that way for a while until the penultimate lap, where I was in a battle with Maguire for the final podium place. We were side by side into Turn 1, me with the inside line. I waited for him to brake, and when he didn't I hit them hard and got the ABS Ice mode lockup. The pedal goes rock hard but the brakes don't work! He had done the same and be both went super wide. I kept it on the black stuff but he went to do some grass tracking. Unfortunately this let Forber, who had come all the way from the back, slip past us both. Nightmare!

However, I had seen the guys at the front knocking chunks out of each other, so I knew I just needed to keep close and there might have been some penalties coming their way. I was right, Carl got a 5s time penalty for Track limits, then Forber knocked over the ride height checker again, sending him to the back of the grid for Race 3. This promoted me to P2! Not how I wanted to get a podium, but I have lost them in similar situations, so I guess it all comes around.

Even the lap chart is more interesting for me this time, with a bit of movement, sometimes in the wrong direction!

Everyone's lap times were slower this time, after some ECUs had been swapped around, however I was still off the pace. I need to get used to these tyres, having spent 3 years racing on A052s that are completely different (and MUCH BETTER!)

ClubSport Trophy Qualifying

I had to leave Parc Ferme from R2 of the TTCR in a bit of a hurry to get to the assembly area for ClubSport Trophy Qualifying. To have any chance of winning I needed to swap from the Nankangs to Yokohama A052s. Luke and the guys did this double quick and sent me on my way. I wasn't the first one there, but not the last either! I decided to learn from TTCR Quali and pulled over in the pitlane and went out last, giving me time to get a decent gap for at least a few flying laps. This time I could have the radio as well, so no need to come into the pits to find out my position!
I was a bit conservative on my first lap, only doing a 2:13.650 (which would have been good enough for P3 anyway) but I pushed harder and did a 2:10.764 which put me on Pole, but I knew that Crilly in the Z4 and Chafer in the E36 M3 were too close for comfort. I came in for pressures and temps then sent it for 1 more flying lap. I knocked a load of time off everywhere, and settled on a 2:10.027.
I thought it would be enough, then Chafer pulled two 2:09s out of nowhere and jumped me by 0.5s. I had no chance! I was still well ahead of Paul Bancroft in the other TTCR car, which was also on Yokos in Class B.

You can see the M3 was a fair bit off until the last 2 laps. He said he had quite a bit of traffic so found clear air near the end of the session.

Again, pole swapped a few times during the session but ultimately I had to settle for 2nd spot on the front row.

TTCR Race 3

This time I was on the Front Row, so if there were any time I needed to get a good start, this was it!

I got off the line well, and with Harry defending on the inside, was able to take the normal line into T1 and stay alongside. He pushed me quite hard but I stayed on the track and he went to do the same at Turn 2. He was aggressive on the exit and pushed me off and into the clutches of Carl. I had the inside line so kept the position. Harry had a bad exit and I was alongside for Agostini. He moved sharp right under braking, then pushed me onto the grass at the exit. 3 times now, the gloves were off!
While all this was happening, Carl slipped through and started to pressurise Harry, finally making his move around the outside at Brundle for the inside at Nelson. Now was my chance! I went up the inside at Bomb Hole (say it three times fast) and was up into 2nd. From there it was a pretty straight forward race, with Carl slowly increasing the gap over the remaining laps.

A genuine P2 and a 2.2s gap. Much better, and where I should have been in Race 1 had I got my head into the game early on!

Carl was P1 all the way through, I was P2. Luke made it up from the back of the grid to P7 at the end of lap 1 with a mega start, dropped back to P9, then made his way back to P5 by the end of the race. A great race and it would have been possible for a podium if he had not started from the back due to the crash in Race 2 (well, before race 2!).

The laps were not too bad, but still too slow compared to Carl and the other quick guys. Luke held the fastest lap of the race for just over 1 second before Ryan Edgecumbe pipped him by 0.06s!

ClubSport Trophy Race

This is my 3rd front row start out of 3 races in the ClubSport Trophy, and I was more confident in getting the car off the line with the A052s than the NR-2Rs for sure!

I knew the M3 was on Direzzas and the Z4 on AR-1s, so I needed to make a break for it at the start, as when they got the tyres up to temp, they would reel me in on the long Snetterton straights. I was off like a rocket against the poor starting BMW and disappeared off as they hustled for the next few places. I'd pulled a decent lead, but the more powerful Class A cars closed the gap on the straights, so I was only 1s ahead at the end of the first lap. I extended on lap 2 and 3 while they had a battle, but then as the M3 broke loose and hunted me down, I was a sitting duck.
Round the twisty stuff I was able to close, and on a few occasions pull back ahead to cross the line in P1. By the time we needed to pit, the BMW was just ahead, so we pitted together.
I mis-timed the stop and came out just over 1s too early, so knew a penalty would be coming.

I'd pushed in the stop to come out in front of the BMW, as again I knew his tyres would be less grippy than mine until back up to temp, so wanted to build a gap.
This worked perfectly as I had over 3 seconds after the outlap, then over 5s by the end of the race. But I then had the 31s penalty to be applied, which pushed me back to 3rd and still 1st in class.

TSL had incorrectly applied a much greater penalty, so for a brief period, they gave the 1st in Class B trophy to Paul Bancroft. I let his Mrs keep the Champagne when I broke the news to him!

The lead swapped between myself and Chafer a fair few times, so the having the penalty dropped me off the overall win was a little frustrating. I only had myself to blame!

I'd improved my best time to a 2:09.799 during the race, but it was not enough to match the M3s 2:09.238! If the M3 and Z4 were on Yokos, I would have no chance!

Thanks to Luke, Tom and Dave from Area Motorsport who supported the car this weekend, as well as Luke from our workshop for helping out.
Big shout to Luke Handley, who did the majority of the build on this car.
Also thanks to our main sponsor in this car, Partly, who are helping us with fitment data for some exciting changes to the website, coming this year!

Photos courtesy of Louise Handley, BRSCC and Jon Elsey Photography.

All the details and dates for future races we are entering can be found on the Darkside Motorsport Page.