On Sunday, the remaining race will start at 12.05.

Pete goes into these rounds of the championship in 3rd position overall and hopes to continue with his excellent recent form to score some good points.

The weekend did not start fantastically well when he was punted into the gravel backwards at over 100mph during testing on Friday but the Parr Motorsport team did a fantastic job getting the car ready for qually on Saturday morning. All seemed well on Saturday with bright sunshine and therefore a dry track – at least it was dry until just before qually when during the previous session oil was dumped on the racing line around the fastest corner on the track, Copse. Despite the oil Pete chipped away at his times until the last 5 minutes and then put in some very quick times to take pole by 0.2s.

Saturday afternoon saw the first race of the weekend. Pete got a great start, maintained his position and then held the class lead for the entire race despite enormous pressure first from Don Grice in a BMW GTR and then Harry Whale in another 997 cup car. Traffic nearly cause a last corner lead change but Pete held his nerve to bring the 95 car home by 0.16s.

Race 2 was very uneventful starting 3rd on the grid with 55kg success ballast. Pete decided considering his grid position and weight to go with old tyres and try and bring the car home in third. Despite a good start and getting into 2nd he was overhauled and then maintained 3rd until the end.

Race 3 on Sunday afternoon, Pete had now lost some of the ballast and was on fresher tyres so felt confident about the race despite starting behind his two closest rivals. The start went well without any drama’s but did not result in gaining any places. The next 10 or so laps Pete and Don Grice again battled lapping consistently with 0.4s between the cars as they crossed the line lap after lap. Finally, Grice ran wide at Becketts and Pete slipped through to take 2nd. By now, the leading cup car was long since gone and Pete held his position to come home 2nd.

So all in all not a bad weekend – 1st, 3rd and 2nd. We still lead the Class 2 Championship and look forward to the next outing with GT Cup.

The car will be fixed ready for qually but it was not the start to the weekend anyone wanted.

Commenting Pete said “we made good progress n car set up in session one but never really got a clear lap all day. The speed difference between the cars testing today was huge. In the final session we had decided on a schedule of work that needed doing but it was not meant to be. I went into the maggots becketts complex at over 100mph when a much slower car turned into me. I was fired off just missing the wall ending upbackwards n the gravel.

I can’t be cross with the other guy – he was doing his own thing and should not be expected to move out of the way all day, we had a chat about it, it was just lucky neither of us were hurt. He just did not see me”

So we go into qually with a lot to do, but we love a challenge.

This will be the first race weekend this year that Pete actually gets to test on the Friday instead of going straight into qually on the Saturday cold.

The weekend kicks off with qually on Saturday morning and R1 is on Saturday afternoon, with R2 and R3 on Sunday

Coming off the back of a good GT Cup debut at Donington, Pete’s hopeful of building on that performance and get some more speed.

Pete said about Silverstone ” I was massively frustrated after Donington as I absolutely did not achieve what I can in terms of pace, so Silverstone is about sorting those issues out. We are making some big changes this season with regard to the way I drive the car and it’s taking some time to make it natural, rather than forced. We are making good progress but I’m expecting a big step forward at Silverstone – its time for a good test on Friday, then relax into qually on Saturday and then see how we go”

Pete kept to the inside of the first corner avoided the carnage and got his head down leaving him leading his class and having gained 4 places. He then kept the class lead for the rest of the race, managing the gap back to the 2nd place car to bring the car home in 7th overall and his first win of the  season.Two more races tomorrow.

Race 2 and race 3 on Sunday were a war of attrition with monsoon like conditions all day. The field dwindled during the course of the final two races to twelve cars, and Pete was pleased to follow up his win with 2 second in class results and bring the car home in one piece.

Commenting, Pete said “Its been a brilliant start in GT cup. We have finished up with a really good points haul and we now need to build on this at Silverstone in 2 weeks time”

The fist set of tyres seemed to worweekly but unfortunately Pete caught traffic on laps 4 and 5 meaning he did not get the times expected. He then went back out on another set which did not feel as good. He got down to a best of 1m 12.2 which was a huge disappointment for him despite being in P3 for class 2. First race is off at about 5pm with a 70% chance of rain.

Pete is running in class2 with an eclectic mix of cars – Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, TVR and Chevron to name but a few.

There was no testing again before the weekend but lets see how things go Saturday morning for qualifying. First race is around 4pm Saturday afternoon and hen 2 races on Sunday

We will be tweeting live from the track with updates, and post some updates on Saturday night live from the track.

If your visiting the track, come and say hi to the team in garage 34.

A video covering the Porsche World Cup at the Nurburgring. Pete features prominently in the footage, albeit looking very miserable for some reason!

The second is the Snetterton race 1 review from earlier in April 2012. The race 2 coverage, in which Pete got a podium, is yet to be released.

Race 1, dry, 4th

Race 2, wet, 3rd

Championship position after Rounds 1 and 2, 3rd

Race Report – Snetterton

Download (PDF, 5.07MB)