BTCC R3 - SNETTERTON 300: SLIPPING AND SLIDING ROUND NORFOLK
Wet weather in Norfolk proved to be very challenging for Round Three of the KwikFit BTCC!
Another weekend in the points for Scott Sumpton at Snetterton in his debut year of the BTCC! It was a weekend full of slips and slides around the Norfolk circuit with the conditions changing by the minute.
Scott was itching to get back out in his SGS Cupra Leon! After a strong showing at Brands Hatch, Scott was ready to do that all again for rounds 7, 8 and 9 of the KwikFit British Touring Car Championship.
Snetterton is the longest track on the BTCC calendar and one of the hardest. This is because it has a variation of both tight and tricky slow speed corners, plus high speed hold your breath corners. This meant Scott was doing his upmost to learn the track in the wet conditions in both FP1 and FP2. Although Scott had done wet testing at Snetterton before in his TCR car, it was a completely different feeling as the BTCC car moves around lot more in the wet conditions. This meant Scott was re-learning the track in these conditions ready for a wet qualifying.
As Scott was P19 in FP2 it meant that he was in the odd group for qualifying. This was for sure the harder group with lots of front running cars in and this therefore made it a difficult group. However Scott tried to put a lap together which was good enough for P18 overall. Scott was happy with this as it was another step forward from the Brands Hatch qualifying, plus he was only 0.05 off of Aiden Moffat who is a front running driver.
Moving into Race One, the track was slightly greasy and there was only one dry line. Scott got an amazing start and was battling with the cars around him making up positions, however when going for a move into Brundle underneath the bridge, Scott was on the greasy part of the track and locked his brakes which sent him spinning off onto the grass. Although frustrated Scott got back going and was able to finish the race in P19 and was able to gather valuable track time.
Race Two on the other hand went rather well... It was a gamble between the wet and slick tyres and Scott opted for the wets right from the start. This would therefore allow him to run the soft tyre in the last race of the day. On the formation lap half of the grid which were on wet tyres decided to pit for the slick option. This meant Scott moved up the grid and was able to make positions early on with people who went for the slicks from the start. Five laps into the race the slick tyres looked like the ones to be on as they came in and started being quicker than the wet, however the good old English weather decided to pour it down which meant Scott was able to hold onto his position of P11. Scott was ecstatic with this as it was his best result in the BTCC and the teams best result so far.
Scott and his engineer Tom were able to work really well together and therefore saved the soft tyre for the last race. This gave Scott the best opportunity to move up the grid in the final race of the day . However, the tricky conditions didn't favour Scott and he made a few costly mistakes throughout the race which therefore led to him finish P18.
Although it wasn't how Scott wanted it to end in race three, it was overall a really positive weekend and lots of progress was made. Now Scott has got his full focus on Thruxton which is just over a weeks' time from now and being the fastest circuit on the UK calendar, Scott has to put his big boy pants on!!
