Snetterton Future Classics
Joy in the sunshine
10th April 2011
Ryan arrived at Snetterton looking forward to having his first experience in a Porsche 964, and also driving the new Snetterton circuit layout.
For qualifying, Ryan's team mate James Neal went first to dial himself into the track, as he hadn't raced for 3 years and wanted to get out there as soon as possible. He did a solid job and was lying 13th when he handed over to Ryan to drive the final 15 mintes of the session. Ryan soon got up to speed to produce a lap time of 3.3 seconds quicker and secure 9th on the grid overall out of 42 and 4th in class.
Ryan started the race, it was a rolling start, and after the first lap had made up two positions - lying in 7th and in a close battle for 4th position. Over the next five laps Ryan caught each car, set them up, passed them and pulled away to hand over to James Neal in a clear 4th position overall and 2nd in class.
James rejoined the race still 4th overall and was setting new personal best lap times for himself within a few laps. He was having a great battle with a fellow competitor in the same class - sadly 4 laps from the end of the race, James lost the position and dropped to 3rd in class which he kept to the chequered flag. So, first race out of the box was rewarded with a 5th placed finish overall (which later became 4th as the winner was excluded) and 3rd in class.
Ryan enjoyed his experience massively and is looking forward to round 2 at Brands Hatch already - he's put ideas forward to where he believes the car can be made faster and there's no reason to think otherwise, that Ryan and James can't get another top 6 fininsh.
Next week see's Ryan having his first outing in the Radical SR8 which he's racing alongside Tony Brewer at Silverstone in the European Radical Masters Championship.