NO STOPPING THE NEARYS IN BRITCAR AT SNETTERTON
Father-and-son pairing Richard and Sam Neary were handed a windfall in the Britcar
Endurance round at Snetterton when a pitstop under a safety car gave them an entire lap on their closest rivals.
Neary Sr was at the wheel of the Team ABBA Racing Mercedes-amg GT3 with a healthy 14.9-second lead before the pit window. The #4 JPR Motorsport Saker RAPX had been in second after Chris Hart handed over to Steve Harris but broke down on the straight to cause a safety car at half-distance.
As Richard Neary had yet to stop, the “mega lucky” Team ABBA car benefited from pitting under the yellows and catching up to the rest of the field before the green flags flew, gifting son Sam a full lap lead as the race went green.
With the #4 car out, it was the #3 stablemate Saker of Paul and Kristian Rose that was promoted to second. Paul put in a remarkable first stint having been unable to qualify the car as a result of exhaust problems, but recovered to the podium spots in just three laps.
The Nearys cruised to win number two in the second contest, only dropping the front spot during the pit phase. The big benefactors in the stops in that race were the championship-leading Paul Bailey/andy Schulz Ferrari 488, which jumped from ninth to second during the pit sequence, and the Taranis shared by Jonny Macgregor and Ben Sharich – which found itself in third from 10th.
But the Macg Racing squad couldn’t hold third and had to retire with damage to the top wishbone from a heavy hit with the kerbs to hand the Saker of Alan Purbrick and David Brise a third place.
Ronan Pearson, James Colburn and Simon Freeman diced for the Michelin Clio Cup honours in a pair of thrilling encounters, with race two the highlight for winner Colburn.
Freeman made the most of race one winner Pearson’s wide moment at Wilson on the first lap with a classy twocar pass to go into the lead. Colburn made a move stick at Agostini to claim the lead but Pearson wasn’t able to follow him through despite a few wheelbanging duels with rival Freeman.
It took just the final three minutes of the three-hour Citroen C1 Challenge enduro to be decided in favour of Declan Mcdonnell, Joe Wiggin and Simon Walker-hansell.
The #397 Renvale car of Mark and Stephen James spent most of the race ahead and, leading after the final stops, looked on for the win. But a downpour 22 minutes from home greased the asphalt nicely, causing an off for Dave Whitehouse and a final safety car.
The green flag flew with six minutes to go and, des pite the #397 holding its lead initially, it was the #347 Mcattack machine with Wiggin at the wheel which enjoyed the slippery surface best and stole the lead at Turn 3 on the final lap. A 0.742s victory was the time at the line.
David Mellor lost two potential
MG Owners Club wins thanks to a suspected misfire. He got a slow getaway from pole in his ZR for Steve Mcdermid to take the lead and had been running second when the fault led to him plummeting down to 12th.
The same happened again on the third lap of race two into Turn 3 while he was leading, allowing the squabbling William Sharpe and Lee Sullivan to grab the advantage.
But it was Mcdermid who snuck ahead of Sullivan due to his superior pace to claim another bottle of winner’s champagne.
Double Classic Formula Ford 1600 winner Rick Morris feared Mike Gardner, starting in second for race one, would steal the lead as the series returnee was not in title contention.
But Morris need not have worried – he eased to an untroubled 5.110s win while Gardner retired after a single lap when his left-rear wheel broke. That left Gardner with work to do from 22nd in the second race, but proved why he is a double champion with a rapid drive through the field to sixth as Morris repassed Craig Currie to win again.