A
Potential Win Goes Up In Flames
A
potential race win for Anthony Dunn & Barry Gates went
up in smoke at Snetterton this weekend after a problem whilst
refuelling took them out of the lead.
Despite
only qualifying in 7th, Anthony made a strong start to stay
with the leading pack and kept his head when rain hit the
circuit, taking advantage of the conditions to jump up to
2nd behind Rob Garofall's Norma.
Once
the track dried, he level pegged Garofall on pace and kept
Pole sitter Nick Padmore behind. The trio streaked away
and were a lap ahead of the rest of the field after an hour
of the 6 hour race.
Anthony
took the lead of the race as the others pitted and held
this until the pitstops. As the Chevron Racing Team went
to refuel the car, the refuelling unit failed, dousing the
car in petrol which then ignited on the hot exhaust. Thanks
to quick work from Chevron and surrounding teams & fire
marshalls, the blaze was quickly brought under control,
but left the car badly scorched and covered in powder.
The
team went to work checking the car over and cleaning vital
components and together with Mountune racing did a brilliant
job of getting the car back out with Barry at the helm,
albeit 43 laps down.
The
pair had a good pace over the remaining 4 hours and even
clawed back a lap on the leaders.
"Our
strategy and race pace was excellent this weekend - the
fact that we took a lap back showed we could have won. Barry
was very quick and the car was reliable - it's just a shame
we had this refuelling failure.
It's
something that I know VdeV UK are concerned with and the
team will work closely with them and the equipment suppliers
to prevent it from happening again. We'd like to extend
our thanks to the other teams & fire marshalls for their
assistance." said Anthony.
The
race was won by Rob Garofall & Simon Phillips in their
Norma M20F.
The
next race is in 3 weeks time on the Grand Prix Circuit at
Brands Hatch.
(Before
the blaze - did the crop sprayers know something we didn't?!)
