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Snetterton Disappointment For Bell |
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Tuesday, 15 August 2006 |
BMW ace unable to score at Norfolk venue
Barrow-upon-Humber race driver Martyn Bell was left disappointed by the latest round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship after a difficult weekend of competition at Snetterton.
Tricky weather conditions and an incident early in the second race played a part in making the seventh meeting of the season the toughest since racing resumed following the summer break, with the Geoff Steel Racing team working miracles to get Martyn out onto the grid for the final race of the day.
Qualifying on Saturday afternoon had seen Martyn post the 17th quickest time despite admitting afterwards that he was losing time through Sear and on to the long Revett Straight – one of the most important parts of the lap.
“Qualifying went well and we pulled away from the group I was in and
latched onto the next group I need to fight with,” Martyn said
afterwards. “We were struggling with straight-line speed down the
Revett Straight. I wasn’t getting the power on early enough at Sear,
which meant I was then losing three or four mile per hour on the
straight – so it was off for a walk in the rain for me and Geoff to
have a look at that part of the circuit.”
Overnight rain was followed by a further heavy shower on Sunday morning
which left the BTCC teams faced with a tricky decision over which way
to go with tyres for the opening race – with the circuit damp but
drying and the possibility of more rain in the air. Martyn and the team
elected to go with wet tyres all round and initially it looked a wise
move as the BMW moved up to the fringes of the top ten, but as the
circuit dried, the tyres worked against Martyn and he could do nothing
to stop others demoting him to 14th place at the flag.
Race two was held in better conditions, but for Martyn it would come to
an end almost as soon as the lights went green. The rear-wheel drive
BMW rocketed away off the line, but as Martyn turned into the first
corner, he was greeted by the sight of Dave Pinkney’s Honda Integra
going sideways in front of him. Diving to the outside to try and avoid
the spinning car, Martyn was left with nowhere to go and was launched
over the front of the Motorbase Performance machine, briefly going onto
two wheels before crashing back to the ground and retiring on the spot.
It left the team with work to do to prepare for the race and sterling
work by the pit crew meant the BMW took its place on the grid for the
final race. For a while it looked like a points finish for the second
consecutive meeting could be on the cards as Martyn sat in eleventh
place, before Pinkney and Mike Jordan managed to pass the BMW late on
to leave Martyn in 13th place.
“It’s been a bit of a disappointing race day for us to be honest as it
isn’t where we want to be right now,” Martyn said when racing had
finished. “In race one we looked at the sky and thought we’d go with a
wet set-up and it dried up a treat. We stayed out, but the car was
sliding all over the place as it would on wet tyres with a drying
track. In race two I got a cracking start but when I got to the first
corner, Pinkney was sideways in front of me and I had absolutely
nowhere to go and we took the corner off the BMW.
“It took a while for us to get the car back so the guys only had about
55 minutes to straighten the car out and they did a fantastic job. I
thought we’d have to start from the pit-lane, but they got me out onto
the grid. The race was better but the car didn’t feel as good as it did
on Saturday although we passed the works Vauxhall of Erkut and I had
the legs on him. Mike Jordan came up behind me towards the end with his
headlights on and I thought he was leading so I let him past – there
was some miscommunication with me and the team, but we’ve had a chat
and sorted it out.
“However we are still upbeat, we are continuing to collect positive
data with every meeting and we will make the journey to Knockhill in
few weeks full of optimism.”
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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