Snetterton Race Reports

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In the MG Cup’s Snetterton contest we at last got what we had been keenly anticipating all season: a straight fight out front between the evenly matched Metros of Mike Williams and reigning Metro Cup champion Jack Ashton.

We had to wait another race to get this though as Ashton missed the first counter thanks to an oil seal coming off. Williams won that race but it was far from simple as his newly fitted rear wheels had not been torqued fully. He went as quickly as he dared to beat the returning Peter Burchill’s ZS 180 (pictured above) by just 0.333 seconds.

Dennis Robinson was third home in his MG ZR 170, taking the place and the Class B victory after champion Richard Buckley slid his 170 off at Oggies late on. Robinson also got Driver of the Race while his son Carl took Class A victory in his ZR 160.

The Williams vs Ashton battle was fully joined in race two, and it was worth the wait. Williams led from the line but Ashton was quickly by and established some breathing space over Williams. But Ashton was using a new tyre compound and found his initial grip fell away meaning Williams closed and overtook. But shortly afterwards Williams had a massive moment – wherein Ashton noted Williams “almost killed himself…I think he was opposite lock three different times!” – that let Ashton back past. Williams reclaimed the lead at Riches late on and crossed the line first, but got a five-second track-limits penalty that handed Ashton the win.

It didn’t affect either driver’s relish of the battle though. “A fantastic race,” Williams beamed. “The back end was all over the shop, I had trouble trying to keep it on the road, that was the cause of the time penalty. But it doesn’t really matter because the race we had it was just absolutely immense.

“Nothing happened for me in the first race. I went round as slow as I possibly could to keep the lead. That [race two] has more than made up for it. It goes to show the racing we’re having, you win one race and you can’t even compare it to the race you’ve just come second in. That’s how it is – you come for the fun!”

Ashton concurred: “Epic race, loved it,” he said. “Got some nice grip for about five laps then all of a sudden it went to really bad jelly tyres. That’s when Mike started to reel me in quite quickly. He’d gone off a couple of times after he got the black-and-white flag, then I saw them holding the board out and I knew exactly what it was. I’d probably try to battle with him [without the penalty], but I wasn’t going to stop him, he was on fire, he was pushing that thing like you wouldn’t believe.”

Buckley this time got Class B win in fourth, just ahead of Carl Robinson who took the Class A win and got a Driver of the Race award of his own. Dennis Robinson this time suffered from lost revs with a suspected VVC Unit problem.