A sunny start to the weekend of the Snetterton round, which always puts a positive spin on the event. Given the unfortunate gearbox issues of the previous round, we were going into this weekend with enough testing on our plate that pleasant weather seemed like a fair blessing. The gearbox had been rebuilt due to a loss of all but 5th gear in the last round, that and the driveshaft that snapped on the final round at Oulton. We had a lot of testing we wanted to carry out prior to the weekends racing so it was an early start all round to make the most of the sessions
A rough start to the Friday unfortunately though, minor adjustments to the shims on the differential allowing the rear a little more slip prior to locking, some strengthening to the latest iteration of the rear diffuser and a strip and repair of the alternator kept us very busy off track. With all this going on we didn’t get too much photography of the test day but otherwise the day ended positively and our outlook for the weekend ahead was good.
Saturday GT Cup practice session
Despite the previous days issues, the car and the team were up and ready for the first practice session
Gareth was happy with the changes to the car during practice with lap times improving from the changes to the differential. So it was decided that Kevin would get some seat time as lately he’s been very kindly sitting on the side line waiting for his turn.
Besides, Gaz seemed more interested in showing us all the way to the beach?!
The first race went really well for Gaz and the Mosler, second place and a fastest lap! Auto qualifying in pole for race two of the day, although the car had picked up some mechanical scars which would need addressing prior to the race.
It would seem that after the gearbox issue, a newly fitted bearing had failed, leaving us with selector issues. This is information that we obviously found out by removing and re fitting the box between the Saturday races, a window of around two hours (well done to the team for that turnaround!).
Unfortunately, with limited time we were in a position where we simply had to see the chequered flag for race two (although that didn’t stop Gaz putting in some amazing times given his lack of gears).
With other vehicles in class not making it out though, we managed to snag a default third place, luckily on this occasion. As always at GT Cup rounds we were treated to something a little out of the ordinary, some Scottish culture in the pit lane between races to keep us focussed, ‘one up’ to the generic stereo I guess;
As I’m sure you can imagine then, the Saturday evening and early hours of Sunday looked very much like this for the team;
And this;
Which ultimately led to a morning of this;
But it all paid off to see all that hard work turn into this, well done team!
Sundays race went as follows;
Gaz and the Mosler ended up 3rd in class, 4th overall, and circa 4 seconds off pace with only 3rd, 4th and 5th gear for the majority of the race! A great effort from Gaz after having to start from the pit garage and therefore back of the grid (the Go Pro footage for this was awesome I assure you).
So a night and morning of gearbox and coolant system strips saw us miss practice and qualifying but to come out of the weekend with a 2nd and 3rd on day 1, along with a fastest lap in qualifying, and a fantastic performance on day two, a 3rd in class was well deserved!
Check out this snap of the lap times with Gaz behind the wheel of the four speed Mosler, always impressive to watch;
We had some help on the media side of things over the weekend with one of our team members having experience with an SLR, I promised I’d give him a mention for this great image he caught, a great snap Johan, very professional;
So although there were some hiccups along the way, the team pulled together to keep the car in check and Gaz put in some excellent driving to bring home some well-deserved championship points, well done Gaz, Kevin, Team NMA and the Mosler!
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Wayne Gater – NMA Curriculum LeaderÂ
