Britcar Endurance/Sports & Touring Race Report 2 – Snetterton 9th August
Having chased Calum Lockie to the line in the day’s first race Nathan Freke took his turn on the top step of the podium after a dominating win in the second Britcar Endurance Championship race of the day at Snetterton.
Driving the Stark Racing entered Ginetta G55 GT3 alone Freke led every one of the 47 laps completed in the 90 minute race after taking the lead at Riches on the opening lap at the expense of the Neil Garner Motorsport Mosler. Aboard the #2 car Manuel Cintrano fell to fourth on the opening lap, losing places to Mike Millard and Lockie. After holding second for the first five laps a mistake would push Millard down the order, leaving Lockie to take up the chase.
While the battle at the front was repeat of the first race in terms of the men and machines involved Freke was able to pull out into a commanding lead of over 20 second before Lockie made his mid race visit to the pits. There the FF Corse man’s quest to sweep the Snetterton Saturday faltered further, a slow pitstop losing him 30 seconds to Freke who continued to stretch out his lead through the second half as Lockie was unable to recreate the pace he showed in the first race.
The final winning margin was nearly 90 seconds. As they had been in race one the Carnell Racing pairing of Nigel Greensall and Darren Nelson were third overall and second in Class 1 behind Freke’s Ginetta. Mike Millard was a further lap behind, completing the Class 1 podium in spite of a number of minor offs. As well as taking second overall Lockie took the Class 2 win, as Guillaume Gruchet his only opposition in class failed to make the finish after his Porsche succumbed to a mechanical problem. The Neil Garner Motorsport entry similarly ended the race on the side lines, Cintrano and Javier Morcillo having to contend with a number of mechanical issues during the race with alternator failure finally ending their race and, Morcillo believes, their title aspirations.
Thus fifth overall – just three laps off the pace set by the overall winners – went to the best of the Britcar Endurance Sports and Touring Championship (BEST) runners.
Lifetime Racing drivers Ian Anderson and Amanda Black were the class of the BEST field from the drop of the green flag in their Ginetta G50, moving into the top five through the early after the delay for Millard and the exit of the MacG Ultima. That they finished only a lap clear of their nearest class rivals only says so much about the dominance of their win.
What, perhaps, says more is that they finished ahead of the BEC Class 3 field, led by Jensen Lunn and Alasdair Lindsay on their first Britcar outing with the Ginetta G55. They finished just 14 seconds clear of Anna Walewska and Kevin Clarke’s Intersport BMW with Stephen Fresle and Zoe Wenham third in class in another Ginetta G55.
Mark and Peter Cunningham completed the same number of laps as the Class 3 trio to take second among the BEST runners with Mike Moss and Tom Howard combining for third in class and tenth overall.
The classified finishers were rounded out by Westlake MSP SEAT of Cris Hayes and Andy Thompson, the BMW of championship leaders Will Arif and Emin Sadig and the Zest SEAT.
Author – James Broomhead
