Northern Ireland saloon car sensation Andrew Herron had his first experience of wet weather testing at the wheel of his 300bhp SEAT Leon Cupra race car at Snetterton in Norfolk last week and emerged from the outing with heightened confidence.The Dromore-based racer, who is preparing to make his race debut in the SEAT Cupra Championship later this month, felt very comfortable indeed in wet conditions last Tuesday, 4th March, at Snetterton – the scene of one of his most impressive race performances last year at the wheel of a Renault Clio Cup car.Moving on to Rockingham in Northamptonshire on Thursday, 6th March, to continue his pre-season programme, the JHR Developments ace lapped very strongly to outpace a number of 2007 SEAT Cupra Championship front-runners who are set to return to the category this year.“Everything is going really well, the team is working closely and I think in terms of our pace we’re pretty much there”, said Andrew, “Obviously we will still need to improve, you always strive to improve every time you go out on track, but I’m getting more and more comfortable with the car and I’ve been very pleased with our progress.”While a number of fellow competitors ran on full sets of fresh rubber later in the day at Rockingham, 19-year-old Andrew elected to use just two new tyres and yet was still impressively within a couple of 10ths of a second of the outright pace.The Brian Herron Contracts-backed ace added: “The last four tests have been the best we’ve had so it shows we’re on the up. With just three weeks left until the start of the season there is still a lot of hard work to do but we’re confident we’ll be in good shape for the first two rounds of the championship.”Andrew’s competitive debut in the SEAT Cupra Championship will come at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent over the weekend 29th/30th March. First though, he will continue his intensive testing programme with three outings this week – Donington Park in Leicestershire today, Tuesday, 11th March, and then a visit to Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent for back-to-back testing on Thursday, 13th March, and Friday, 14th March.