AMOC Snetterton Sunday 9^th June 2002

Report By Stan Hibberd

The Qualifying for race six started a little before 11am in dry windy conditions, sixteen cars took part, pacesetters were Mike Hibberd in his Lotus 27 and Robin Longdon in the Lola Mk5A, fastest of the front engined runners was Derek Walker, Reg Hargrave set the pace for the F3 500cc cars, the Lotus 27 of Mike Hibberd recorded an early lap in 1.20.834, on lap nine he came slowly through the pits and then into the pits with a large piece of tread missing from the off -side front tyre (a new Dunlop !) Robin Longdon carried on for 11 laps in the Lola, his 1.22.163 put him in second place, very happy with third best time was Andrew Hibberd in his Lotus 20 with a time of 1.26.747, fourth was Derek Walker in the Terrier Mk5 1.28.139 well mixed in with the rear engined runners, John Campbell Cooper T59 was fifth also with a 1.28, Len Selby's Cooper T56 making up the top six. David Stevenson in the Mallock Mk11 did a 1.29, followed by Reg Hargraves Kieft F3 just ahead of the Kieft FJ of Michael Waller, tenth was Bill Grimshaw in the Gemini Mk2.

With all the cars for the FJ race in assembly and ready to race in dry conditions, the worst possible thing happened when an Aston Martin on the last corner of it's race, Russell's, blew up and had a massive spin on it's own oil, result a twenty minute delay, during this time the rain clouds gathered and as start time approached the spots of damp turned to drizzle. The commentator did his best to fill in the time with chit chat, during which he marvelled at the thought that FJ cars equated to present day F3 cars, he did spend some time chatting about the drivers CV's in which he was a bit nearer the mark, he then noticed that FJ cars lapped Snetterton in similar times to the winning large sports cars, with an engine a quarter the size, this really puzzled him !!

From the green lights Mike Hibberd Lotus led off the grid and into the first corner, Robin Longdon had the Lola in second, Andrew Hibberd's Lotus was hard on the heels of the leaders as they went out of sight, as the cars came back to the pit area Mike Hibberd's Lotus held a slender lead over Robin Longdon who was challenging hard through Russell's but in the slippery conditions prudently held back, this remained the pattern at the front of the field for the next five laps, in third Andrew Hibberd Lotus was reproducing his practice performance until lap three when the slippery conditions at Russell's caught him out, a spin and a stalled engine saw him stranded in the middle of the corner, the Marshalls pushed him clear and the race continued, Reg Hargrave suffered a clutch failure on lap one and continued but was also unable to restart after a spin, the Cooper of John Campbell was up to third, he also stopped early on lap six, this moved Derek Walker in the Terrier up into third and David Stevenson into fourth, the two Coopers T56's of Len Selby and Ken Collins were fifth and sixth, then at the end of lap six on came the red lights after ten of the fifteen minutes allocated this was the end of the race. Mike Hibberd had held on in the Lotus 27 for the win half a second behind was Robin Longdon in the Lola Mk5A who set the fastest lap of the race 1.24.173, Derek Walker in third was the fastest of the front engined runners with a time of 1.29.550, Stevenson in the Mallock was fourth at the end, Selby and Collins in the Coopers holding on to fifth and sixth at the red lights, not the ideal outcome, it could all have been so different but for the delayed start, the race could have been in the dry, after the red lights stopped the race, our commentator friend wondered out loud whether these cars were perhaps not allowed to race in wet conditions …………………

Thirteen cars finished, three were not classified.

Stan Hibberd 10^th June 2002.