Good day on track, bad day off it

2023 MSV Miata Trophy

Rounds 7 & 8 – Snetterton 300

Not for the first time this year it was a wet race meeting, this time at Snetterton. However, it was very wet. I was third fastest in qualifying, just 0.3 seconds off Alex in second place. I managed to go one better in SuperPole, so started race one on the front row. All good so far.

I managed a fantastic start at the beginning of race one and lead over half the race until pole man Declan Lee came past me. Hats off to him, he was rapid all day, so I was pleased to stick with him for the last part of the race and give him something to think about. Second place was a good result.

Then, scrutineering. We are not allowed to use ABS in our class; I don’t even have an ABS pump in the car. Turns out in these rules you have to have one, but it has to be not plugged in and therefore disabled. I’m not entirely sure why – I was told it could be to do with potential power loss, but we are under the power limit whenever we have been tested. We argued the case, but in the end lost and I was disqualified from the results for not having a part on the car, which shouldn’t be operating anyway. Nice.

It’s not a simple part to fit and with a tight timetable on the day, there was no time. Options I had for race two were to race and get disqualified again, race as a ‘guest’ (start last, 10 seconds after everyone else) or just go home. I decided to be a guest and came through in the heavy rain to seventh.

What really stung was that it meant it would ruin the entire championship season, as I would not score points in race one and wouldn’t in race two either, as guests are not eligible for points.

At the end of the day, it is a good thing that they scrutineer the cars and in force the rules. But, a bit of leniency would’ve been nice as it clearly was not enhancing my performance, especially in those conditions. A £35 part that does nothing is a painful way to see a lot of hard work flushed down the toilet.

But, we move on. Thank you for the support I have received so far and hopefully I’ll be reporting happier news next time.

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Results

Full Results