Toyo Tires/Watchdogapp.com Jaguar Saloon & GT Championship - Rounds 1 & 2 Snetterton

Qualifying -

A total of 21 entrants were attracted for this, the first 2 races of the 12 round 20^th JEC Racing season. The usual first race meeting of the year brought us to Snetterton, to race on the 200 circuit rather than the longer 300 version. This suits the big Jaguars as they avoid the tight bendy parts and instead get to blast down the long Bentley Straight. Paul Greenham from Harlow brought along his XJ40 for his first ever race. Welcome returnees (and former champions) Gail Hill & Gary Davis decided that the pull of Jaguar racing was too hard to resist.

Qualifying – Bright/Dry

The official weather forecast was incorrect as a light rain fell just as the Jaguars set out for qualifying. The rain, on top of surface fluids, made the circuit very tricky. Davis immediately has problems and retired to correct electrical maladies, so he could race. Amongst the spinners at the chicane were Greenham & Dickins, although others had similar problems trying to handle the difficult conditions. Richard Coppock’s XJS was beached on Senna Straight, bringing out red flags. After his car was recovered drivers had just 2 flying laps to improve on times. James Ramm, who had led throughout qualifying, was caught out by Rodney Frost on the very last timed lap. Frost pulled out an excellent 1.33.99 to take pole from Ramm & the XJR of Adam Powderham & Michael Holt’s new (to him) X300. Class A promises to be a real battle as Simon Blunt headed Dickens by .2 of a second.

Race 2 Sunday

Toyo Tires/Watchdogapp.com Snetterton Race 2 – April 8^th

The weather provided a big contrast to Race 1! It was very, very wet and conditions had been supplemented by both fuel and oil around the circuit making it extremely slippery – so much so the race was started behind the safety car. This was also the first JEC use of the reverse grid so the order of the first 4 (the number drawn from the bag) was reversed – Alasdair McGregor on pole (4^th yesterday) alongside Adam Powderham 2nd (3^rd yesterday) with Colin Philpot 3^rd (2^nd yesterday) and yesterday’s winner James Ramm in 4^th.

After two steady laps behind the safety car the lights went out and the race began in earnest. McGregor in his X300 pulled ahead smoothly from the start whilst, at the end of the race, Ramm (XJS) and Philpot (XJS) were both to be summoned to the Clerk of the Course for overtaking before the start/finish line. The order remained McGregor, Philpot, Ramm and Powderham for the first couple of laps until a slight mistake dropped Powderham down the order a little. Poor Derek Pearce pulled off – blaming zero visibility! As with yesterday James Ramm soon moved up the order passing McGregor and took the lead – slowly extending his lead to the end of the race with a good well controlled drive. Rodney Frost also drove an excellent race in his Class B XJS slowly picking of Philpott and McGregor to finish a strong 2^nd.

Further down the order Dave Bye seemed to find some grip and moved up the order in his immaculate XJC 4.2 coupe – finishing an excellent 5^th. Michael Holt (X300) also had a good race in 7^th. Tom Robinson retired on lap 6 and Tim Morrant (Driving Simon Lewis’ class B XJ6) suffered from very limited visibility after his windscreen wipers failed on Lap 2! Ian Drage (Class D XJS) won the Marshall’s award of the day – earning a big cheer with a massive and ‘spectacular’ spin at the end of the start finish straight. Thankfully there was no damage and he quickly continued as if nothing had happened. There were good drives also from Class A’s Simon Dunford & Simon Blunt’s XJSs who were close for the duration, Chris Boon in his new XK8 which performed well out of the box and Richard Coppock whose father Lawrence didn’t make the start with clutch issues. Sadly Tom Lenthall, Gail Hill and Gary Davis also failed to make the start with technical difficulties.

Overall the drivers performed extremely well in very testing conditions – a bit of a challenge for even experienced drivers. Driver of the day was a close call but eventually went to Alisdair McGregor for overall performance and for putting in the fastest lap of the race against much more modified opposition. Newcomer Paul Greenham experienced everything in his first weekend but drove well and learnt a lot about car control – loving every minute of both races. In the end James Ramm incurred a 10 second penalty from the stewards for his ‘early overtake at the start - but it made no difference to the result and he took a well deserved ‘double’ and heads to Castle Combe looking like the man to beat this season.

Results Race 2: Very Wet

Winner James Ramm; Runner Up Rodney Frost; 3^rd Alasdair McGregor

Class A: 1^st Simon Dunford; 2^nd Simon Blunt;3^rd Paul Greenham

Class B: 1^st Rodney Frost; 2^nd Alasdair McGregor; 3^rd Michael Holt.

Class C: 1^st Dave Bye; 2^nd Richard Coppock

Class D: 1^st James Ramm; 2^nd Colin Philpott; 3^rd Adam Powderham

Chris Corfield