18/06/08
Snetterton Race
With the fear of repeating myself once again the forecast for this weekend was not good, the spirits were still high and Snetterton being our local track we had a good weekend planned.Free Practice.
A fairly relaxed feeling for practice soon to change, once again the forecast was for rain but they must have used the wrong bones to predict it as the weather was glorious. First lap Cooper came in saying his rear wheel was loose, but we realised that he had a puncture, after a hectic 10 minutes we got him out on track but had lost valuable time. Unfazed Cooper went out and spoilt the top 4 boy’s party; he was straight on it and soon had them chasing his times. It was all very close on times but Cooper held the number 1 spot with a great penultimate lap gaining nearly a second on his rivals. While running further down Harris was getting into his stride, though he was getting better times each lap and looking good. On his eighth lap Harris tipped into the Esses and the rear let go, amazingly so Harris saved it but then had to tip into the second part of the Esses and lost it again chucking him off the bike. Upon inspection a hose had let loose onto his back tire.
Qualifying
After the madness of the practice session the qualifying was remarkably tame, Cooper put in some good early laps and pulled into the pits after an early claim on pole. While waiting for the rest of the field Williamson put his claim in and took pole, Cooper was not settling for second best and put in a 1:12.072 good for pole and put an end to the battle. After the repairs to the Harris bike he was good to go, taking some easy warming up laps and rechecking the work Harris then qualified a healthy 9th on the grid. A brave performance considering the bikes state a few hours previous.
Race 1
Now the fun and games began, glorious sunshine then 40 minutes before the race the heavens opened, fine, a wet race? Nope. Just to make things even more complicated the rain stopped with blazing sunshine with 30 minutes to go, the whole grid inspected the track amongst the spectators trying to fathom if the track would dry or not. Our choice was a dry rear, wet front and see how the sighting lap went and if the choice was no good Cooper would pull in and change. Harris decided with a full wet setup, good call. After the sighting lap Cooper was straight in followed by Wood, Cooper made the call and a wet rear was efficiently exchanged, whereas Wood went from a wet to a dry. Game on. There was one problem though, the pit lane had closed, Cooper and Wood were forced to start right at the back of the grid, a disastrous decision with tyres but we knew Cooper was the best man to make that call and kept our faith. Maybe just maybe we could grab 6th for some good points, the bellowing roar signified race start and could see Cooper with afterburners on flying through the pack then disappearing from view. A nervous, hopeful team awaited the return, Cooper had done well, and the view that greeted us was Cooper coming round Coram in 6th place. Couple more places into Russells then a mad dash up the start/finish straight, the transponder signalled Cooper had crossed the line in 2nd. Meanwhile Harris was having his own battle, he had dropped a couple of places from 9th and was trying to recover. By lap 5 he had clawed his way backed to 9th and diced with Williamson matching his lap times. The lad Cooper had not finished performing on his tarmac stage, act 2 or lap 2 Cooper flew over the line in 1st place truly an amazing achievement but then to add insult to injury he decided to gap the whole field by 6 seconds. If this race could be portrayed in a theatre then Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber would be jealous. The result was Harris came in 9th and Cooper 1st, great performance from both riders and a great performance for the audience.
Race 2
For this race even though there were some menacing clouds lingering a dry setup was called for. From the start Cooper led the field followed closely by Wood and Williamson, unable to get enough top end down the back straight Cooper was loosing out but very quick through the twisty stuff. The man Harris got of the line a bit slower than he would have liked, he was up for a good race and a really good result. On lap 2 Harris gave the Superduke a little extra squirt of fuel a little too soon out of Russells and the rear came round highsiding him, a bit battered Harris limped back to pit lane despondent as his mind was fixed on a fine result. Meanwhile Cooper, Williamson and Wood where giving the spectators some value for their money, like some choreographed dancing performance the guys chopped and changed with some great close racing but into the final lap Wood had the lead. Coming into the Esses Wood was about 1-2 seconds ahead as Cooper had run wide earlier, but by Russells he had caught him up. Onto the finish straight Wood missed a gear and Cooper was gaining on him, a drag race to the finish but 2nd was the result, however another meter of track and we would have pinched it. Check the times.
Wood 14:39.560
Cooper 14:39.565
My Thoughts
Some great highs and some real lows, I guess that is racing but very hard to absorb at times. The weekend for Harris ended a sore one for him, the bike not too badly damaged but damaged none the less and some great championship points for Cooper. Once again some valuable lessons learned from this weekend and some major work to be completed in between races. We are still in this championship and focus from all involved will keep us there, Mallory next up.
Mark
SJBracing
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