at Snetterton
Michael Caine set the pace in testing at Snetterton (Friday 11 July) ahead of rounds 11 and 12 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, but with just 13-hundredths of a second covering the top six cars, the stage is set for two tremendous races on Sunday. In pro-am1 Nigel Rice headed the times, while Glynn Geddie topped the very competitive pro-am2 category.
With an excellent total of 18 cars on track, the test sessions were busy and it was Caine who topped both sessions for Team Parker Racing, posting the day's best time of 1m08.780s in the afternoon session, shortly before a thunderstorm swept across the Norfolk track.
Phil Quaife (Jota Sport) set second fastest time, despite a dramatic start to the second session when he suffered a nose bleed while waiting to join the track. "I haven't had one of those for years," he said after losing the first 10 minutes of the 45-minute session. Once back on track, Quaife was bang on the pace. "The car was mega and I'm confident for qualifying," he said.
Third fastest was Tim Harvey (Red Line Racing), who reckoned that the track was a little slower in the afternoon as the ambient temperature rose. "I think we could have been a bit quicker," said Harvey, despite being only four-hundredths slower than Caine. An impressive fourth fastest ahead of his Carrera Cup debut was 19-year old American racer Jake Rosenzweig (Team Parker Racing). "Everyone had traffic to deal with; that's about what I was hoping for," he said.
Completing the hugely competitive top six were Sam Hancock (Jota Sport) and Tim Bridgman (Team Parker Racing), while Charles Bateman (Team Parker Racing) was only two-tenths of a second further back and determined to narrow the gap in Saturday's qualifying session.
Rice (Red Line Racing) topped the pro-am1 category, but was chased by Jack Clarke (PCGB) and Tony Gilham (ReDesign Racing), with barely a second covering the three cars. Clarke was thoroughly enjoying his first experience of racing in anything other than a single-seater and made a good impression with ninth fastest overall.
A tremendous line-up of pro-am2 cars will ensure a race within a race and it was Geddie, recently turned 18 years old, who topped the times for Parr Motorsport despite an electrical gremlin. Well in touch with his team mate was Steve Rance. "There's definitely more time to come yet," said Rance who, like Geddie, was racing his own car in the Carrera Cup for the first time.
Completing the top four in pro-am2 were Graeme Mundy and George Mackintosh from RSS Performance, both showing excellent pace ahead of their first races in the Carrera Cup.
