Snetterton 24hrs 2005
Introduction	1. Preliminary Information	2. Team/Driver Information	3. Grid/Qualifying information	4. Start-Dusk	5. Dusk-Dawn
6. Dawn-Finish	7. Results	8. Event photos	9 Snetterton, The Movie	10. Event Summary	11. Photos, Mugs, T-Shirts, Posters

The winner of the 2005 2CV 24 hour race at Snetterton was

Immediately after the awards ceremony there was a hailstorm. 

This report was published at 4.30 p.m. May 30th 2005

Matt Hollis' Report

The 2005 2CV 24hr race was once again held at Snetterton, Norfolk’s equivalent of the Las Vegas strip. After last year’s ‘interesting’ race, entries were surprisingly good, with 30 cars starting. For this year, a second class was introduced which meant cars could run without the club cam but were penalised by running unmodified flywheels – Millgate Racing, Hollis Motorsport and Four Lemons and an Orange took advantage of the rule change. Despite some strong competition and the traditional bank holiday rain, it was Tete Rouge who won the race for the first time (driven by Pete Sparrow, Paul Roberston, Colin Whiteley and Simon Turner). Rocket Dog Racing (Pete Cardell-Williams, Mick Storey, Andy Smith and Matt Riley) gave chase but had to settle for 2nd, whilst Ramageddon (Ken Thomson, Michael Higson, Iain Gibbon and Graham Harper) led for much of the race but lost speed in the last few hours, eventually finishing 3rd. The following is a brief account of what happened to all the teams (the editor cannot be held responsible for guessing what happened and making stuff up):

NO. 1 – myatts.co.uk with DEAD END RACING Q: 1ST R: 10TH

2004 winners Phil Myatt and Graham Wallace were joined by Gary Byatt and Alan Gow to defend their crown. Pole position was a good start, but within an hour a valve problem had dropped them to 24th. By midnight they were back up to 8th but more problems in the early hours meant they came home 10th.

NO. 2 – TEAM GADGET RACING Q: 3RD R: 11TH

Wayne Cowling, Ainslie Bousfield, Gary Adnitt and David O’Keeffe started as one of the favourites, and duly lead from 8pm until 11pm, when the camshaft weights came loose. Diagnosis in the pits took an hour and a half, dropping the car to 21st. One of the quickest cars in the race, the team just missed out on a top-10 finish.

NO. 3 – HOOTERS Q: 30TH R: 30TH

Last year’s winners of the ‘Spirit of the Meeting’ returned with stiffer springs and a new paint job. Terry Clark, Steve Hindle, Mark Harris and Cam McClory clearly enjoyed themselves, but a collapsed chassis resulted in last place, 357 laps behind.

NO. 4 – TEAM TWIN SNAILS TOO Q: 26TH R: 23RD

A professionally run team, with original line-up of Mark Heywood, Peter Rigg, James Ritblat and Peter James changed when Zoe Cardell was drafted in as a late replacement. No brakes and losing oil from their engine early on, the team hung around 24th for most of the race before snatching 23rd in the last hour.

NO. 5 – HOLLIS MOTORSPORT Q: 24TH R: 9TH

For once Hollis Motorsport had a decent 24hr result, opting for reliability over outright speed. Matt Hollis, Richard Hollis and Nigel Hollis only encountered exhaust manifold problems and a car way off the pace in the wet to claim 9th overall and win the Economy class.

NO. 7 – LE POULET ROUGE Q: 15TH R: 26TH

Trevor Williams hired his car out to Martin Amison, Michaele Apostolides and Keith Britnell. The team suffered engine problems during the dark hours, losing them a lot of time, but carried despite an apparent lack of power.

NO. 8 – ROCKET DOG RACING Q: 7TH R: 2ND

Pete Cardell-Williams, Mick Storey, Andy Smith and Matt Riley just missed out on the win by one lap. A near-faultless run resulted in a well-deserved trophy.

NO. 10 – CLOCKWORK ORANGE WITH TETE ROUGE Q: 14TH R: 5TH

A truly international team of Maurice O’Reilly, Steve Pfeifer, Bruce Trenery and car-owner Christian Callander finished an excellent 5th after always running in the top 10. An impressive display.

NO. 11 – MILLGATE RACING WITH AVO SHOCKERS Q: 22ND R: 21ST

Steve Panas, Glen Jacques, Rachael Calvert and Shaun McLaughlin entered the Economy class and led the category for the first half of the race, climbing as high as 9th overall. Serious engine trouble around half-distance destroyed any hopes of a top 10 finish.

NO. 16 – IMBROGLIO RACING Q: 8TH R: 24TH

Good speed in qualifying did not result in a strong finish for Stuart Dean, Howard Maquire and Kevin Raymond. A failed track rod early on dropped them to near-last, before fighting back to 13th. More problems in the early evening dropped them to near-last again. Deserved better.

NO. 20 – TEAM TWIN SNAILS Q: 19TH R: 17TH

Aubrey Brocklebank was joined by Philip House, Julian Griffin and Andre Severs. Started from the pitlane but ran as high as 6th. Another team to lose a lot of time overnight, the team did well to claw back to 17th.

NO. 26 – RED NOSE SCOTLAND/CANCER RESEARCH Q: 29TH R: 14TH

Derek Coghill, Bill Murray, Claudia Baines and Mark Owen showed that reliability is more important than speed in a 24hr race, climbing as high as 12th before eventually coming home 14th.

NO. 30 – RAMAGEDDON Q: 4TH R: 3RD

The amalgamation of the Scottish Rambo and Armageddon teams produced a genuine potential race-winner, driven by Ken Thomson, Michael Higson, Iain Gibbon and Graham Harper. Led from 1am until 8am and stayed in the hunt until the last few hours. 3rd place was a fitting reward.

NO. 34 – TEAM YELLOW PERIL Q: 12TH R: 4TH

Chris Yates, Neil Savage and Neil Thompson were on the pace all weekend, and coupled with good reliability were always in the top 10. Reached 4th place at 5am and stayed there until the finish.

NO. 42 – TURQUOISE TORTOISE Q: 5TH R: 13TH

A massive improvement in night qualifying put Roger Lott, Jody Lott, Kim Lott and Mark Evans 5th on the grid. Up with the leaders for the first few hours, the team had dropped back into the midfield by the morning. Eventually finished an unlucky 13th.

NO. 46 – BELLA’S BOYS Q: 18TH R: 8TH

Run in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital, the novice team of Andy Kinch, Adrian Sparrow, Andy Hicks and Dave Walker showed impressive pace, staying around the top 10 for most of the race. Dave Walker just held off Hollis Motorsport in the last hour to claim 8th, and with it the trophy for best rookie team.

NO. 54 – TEAM SPIRIT Q: 13TH R: 28TH

Roderick Stead, Graham Hill, Andy Huxtable and Mike Cowen qualified well, but problems early on dropped them well back. Were fighting back but more trouble in the morning resulted in 28th place.

NO. 58 – MARDI GRAS Q: 10TH R: 7TH

Alec Graham, ex-BTCC racer Phil Bennett, Kevin Williams and SCSA (formerly ASCAR) driver Michael Vergers provided of the more famous driver line-ups. Certainly had the speed (ran as high as 3rd) but crashing the kerbs eventually damaged the exhaust and cost them time towards the end.

NO. 59 – GATE-A-MATION Q: 17TH R: 27TH

Andrew Pirt, David Teale, Alan Smith and Greg Wheeler did well to climb to 6th after the first hour, but from then on dropped back with engine trouble. Second-to-last for much of the race, the team struggled on to claim 27th.

NO. 60 – FOUR LEMONS AND AN ORANGE Q: 27TH R: 20TH

Competing in the Economy class, the team of Graham Goode, Tim Matthews, Gordon Riseley and Martin Redmond did well to climb up to 13th before dropping back overnight. Settled at 20th around 10am and stayed there to the finish to claim 2nd in class.

NO. 63 – TETE ROUGE RACING Q: 2ND R: 1ST

Always near the front, Paul Robertson, Pete Sparrow, Simon Turner and Colin Whiteley didn’t actually gain a ‘comfortable’ lead until 9am, 17 hours into the race. No real problems apart from a loose exhaust and detachable steering wheel, and fastest lap (a new lap record) to boot. A very well-deserved victory for all involved.

NO. 67 – LUCKY JON RACING Q: 11TH R: 18TH

After a poor first hour, dropping to 26th, Julian Winn, Jonathan Twidale, Bill Rawles and Luke McSweeney fought their way back up to 7th. Looked good for a top 10 finish until they suffered the same problem as Team Gadget, dropping back to 18th.

NO. 69 – MRB RACING Q: 6TH R: 12TH

A podium finish was on the cards for Paul Taylor, Tim Dodgson and Simon Pearson until the car rolled at the first corner in the early morning. Amazingly only lost 30 laps, and was still quick after repairs. Deserved more than 12th.

NO. 70 – RACEHIRE.COM Q: 21ST R: 6TH

After a fire in qualifying, things weren’t looking good for Glen Burtenshaw, Robin Webb, Peter Ritchie and Myles Packman. But despite predicting they would be lucky to finish the race, the car held together well, proving to be extremely quick in the wet. Stole 6th place from Mardi Gras in the last hour – an excellent result.

NO. 76 – TEAM I-SENTRAL Q: 23RD R: 15TH

Ben Allan, Jamie Lister, Andrew Jenkins and Mike Gartside showed real promise, climbing as high as 8th by the morning. Lost control in the wet at the Esses and smashed into Team Gadget, costing a lot of time. 15th place was still an impressive finish for rookie team.

NO. 77 – TWO SMOKING BARRELS RACING Q: 16TH R: 19TH

Jon Davis was joined by Francis Rottenburg and Said Baloui. A bit of panel bashing early on dropped them down the order, and the team never got out of the midfield after a multitude of problems.

NO. 88 – X-L RACING Q: 9TH R: 25TH

The Irish team of Mike Hynes, John Maybury, Derek Harnett and Hans O’Sullivan had good speed but were involved in a four-car shunt around 11pm and never recovered. Lost a lot of laps in the last few hours to crawl across the line in 25th.

NO. 90 – TEAM STINGRAY Q: 20TH R: 22ND

Another rookie team, Simon Leith, Jeremy Brett, Oliver Hall and Stuart Williams suffered from a broken track road early on, dumping them in the middle of the track at the final chicane. Involved in the collision with X-L Racing, but still managed to continue, despite seriously bent body. Recovered to 23rd by 6am then stayed there until ironically passing X-L Racing in the last hour.

NO. 97 – TEAM FINE PRINT WITH SPEED CHILLS Q: 28TH R: 16TH

Martin Harrold, Spencer Trenery, Ed Straw (Autosport editor) and Jeremy Clark got up to 15th as early as 10pm, but then struggled to progress as problems set in. Had the speed to do better.

NO. 99 – B.R.M.s Q: 25TH R: 29TH

Keith Shoebridge, Ian Guest, Bob Rice and Ben Leslie lost time early on with a collision but were still in touch with the midfield at half-distance. Lost time overnight but determinedly carried on to the finish. Deservedly won the ‘Spirit of the Meeting’ trophy for their efforts.

The chances are this report in no way represents the efforts or achievements of all the teams, so to all those people not mentioned, a very big well done!

reporter: Matt Hollis

Team Stingray Race Report

On the last bank holiday in May (28th-30th) Team Stingray took part in their first BARC sanctioned motor race....... and what a motor race it was! The four man team of Jeremy 'pieces of eight' Brett, Oliver 'Ben Grim' Hall, Simon 'its worth half a second' Leith and Stuart 'stupid' Williams embarked on a 24 hour race in a Citroen 2cv, backed by the 'spanner men' Simon 'hairdresser' Ford and Carl 'that’s not and oil leak' Hemp. You may laugh, but the field of 30 2cv's were 'race' prepared and the racing was very competitive (and with long stints behind the wheel, very tiring).

Team Stingray were one of a handful of novices among a field of seasoned 2cv racers, some who took things very seriously (3 spare engines and a mid race engine change taking only 7 minutes!!). The Team Stingray car (90) was just about competitive with a strong engine, but (as was found out at scrutineering) was rather heavy, carrying in the region of 60kg more than most of the other teams (add Oli to this equation and the poor engine struggled to pull the 15 tones or so that the brick man brought to the car).

The team made up for their novice status, by sporting matching race-suits (the talk of the paddock), the largest motor home in the paddock and one of the largest barbeques on earth (Simon extravagant??). The theory would go on to be proved correct though, however the team did; they would at least look fast!

Practice and qualifying was carried out on the Saturday in an early afternoon and a dusk/dark evening session to acclimatise the drivers to driving at night. All drivers took to the track in a bid to give the team a good grid position for the race, but the talk in the camp was of the endurance nature of the race rather than who was first into the first corner....... there is no hard evidence in the photos, but it seems that Simon may have had his fingers in his ears while singing 'la la la la la la la la' at this point. That said, Mr Leith posted the teams fastest time in the 1st qualifying session and Team Stingray lined up 20th on the grid of 30.

After a quiet night with all of the 'athletes' making sure that they were in A1 condition for race day (!!!!!) the cars took to the grid at 4pm. The order of drivers into the car for the race would be: Leith, Brett, Williams, Hall and the plan was for each driver to do between 1h30mins and 2hrs behind the wheel before coming in for a driver change, re-fuel and obligatory check over for the car by the trusty mechanics.

The race started well with Simon taking the team up to 12th position in the first hour, but then disaster struck! Simon had 'an altercation' with a fellow competitor coming through the bomb hole and although, upon inspection, the damage looked cosmetic (forget the adage that they don’t build cars like they used to, 2cv's are made of paper and pipe cleaners), but under the surface a major problem was brewing. The explanation of the 'altercation' has changed somewhat over time, 'he ran into me' has changed to 'it was a racing accident' via 'it was 50:50' and 'maybe I was a little aggressive'.

Regardless of the above and after a brief pit stop, Jeremy was sent out on his first stint with a worried look on his face and with his last words being 'this car always seems to break when I'm in it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed'. Mr Brett’s luck was not about to change and following some strange noises and rattles, the steering arm snapped on the approach to the Russell chicane and he was left as an immovable object on the racing line. The team could only watch as the other cars narrowly missed the stranded car and many laps were lost while the helpless (and frightened/pissed off) Jeremy sat in the middle of the track. After what seemed like an age the safety car was deployed and a tow truck unceremoniously scraped Car 90 (with Jeremy still onboard) off the tarmac and back to the pits.

This is the first point that Team Stingray learnt about the true nature of 2cv racing and the comradery and spirit involved. The team had no spare part to mend the car and the mechanics were still learning about the finer points of 2cv...... Mechanics and drivers from all around the pit lane flooded into the Team Stingray garage and the necessary parts were given and work was carried out by a troop of helpful 2cv'ers. These guys were our competition and some of them only had minutes before they were supposed to be behind the wheel of their own cars, but they were amazing and got stuck in with only one thing in mind, getting car 90 back on track.

Jeremy’s got back on track and had no further problems before coming in to change with Stuart. The pit stop was like all others, with the exception of the insertion of a booster seat tailor made from foam to help the vertically challenged Mr Williams to reach the wheel, pedals and buttons. The seat was bolted in, so there was no movement the help Oli with his 'knees by ears' driving position or Stuart with his 'odd job' length limbs.

Stuart had a faultless session until......... he was shown the 'pit in' board and headed towards turn one on his final circulation. The team sat anxiously waiting as the seconds and then minutes ticked by, something was clearly amiss. Eventually the call came through on a pit marshal’s radio, there had been a spin at turn one by XL racing (who were, incidentally, sharing a garage with Team Stingray). Stuart had apparently misread the 'pit in' sign and mistaken it for 'spin backwards at full speed into the nice Irish chaps, thus rendering both cars useless', you may argue that a 'misread' of this magnitude would be impossible, but looking into the background of Team Stingray it became apparent that Stuart was the only member to have failed his eye test when getting his medical....... perhaps he had forgotten his glasses for both the eye test and the race.

The car returned to the garage on the back of the recovery truck yet again. No sooner had it touched the cold concrete of garage 23 did the (now familiar) army of helpers stream in armed with club hammers, body panels, lights and wheel adjusters. They set to work on what all within Team Stingray thought would be a lost cause, while Oli (the only driver not to have been behind the wheel) paced up and down the garage, apparently seeming to become larger and burst out into bricks. Eighteen minutes later and the car was back on its way, with the significant ballast of Mr Hall on board.

Night fell as Oli continued on his first stint. The accidents and problems had dropped Team Stingray to last place, some laps behind their closest rival and light-years from the front. Consistency and keeping out of trouble was now of key importance, as other teams were sure to have problems and his race was turning into a war of attrition.

The night was amazing and only the drivers can fully understand the sensory overload that is racing, not just driving, a 2cv at night. The tiredness within the camp, especially with Ford and Hamp (poet?) was obvious during the night, as drivers took what sleep they could while not behind the wheel and the mechanics (sponsored by Phillip Morris and Red Bull) kept the night vigil getting no sleep at all! The team held it together during the night and were consistent. A few places were made back and the new target became the top 20, it was a big ask (or at least that’s what Oli thought they said), but the team needed something to keep them focused when the intermittent inclusion of words like '8OO85' and 'P3N15' on the pit board were failing to work.

From dawn to finish was a blur of tiredness and adrenaline. It rained intermittently and heavily which suited the cars setup and Simons driving style and for a period, Simon’s times in the wet were second only to that of the number 1 car. The rain and wet conditions did lead to most drivers (how did Oli avoid ever having to drive a stint in the wet?) having a few 'grass track' experiences, but none of the scenery was collected and the car soldiered on.

After 24 hours of racing Oli brought the, very second-hand looking, car across the line in front of an elated team and the most fantastic atmosphere. 30 cars and over 100 drivers had driven hard, fixed broken cars and worked together to ensure that everyone finished, even if they were many laps behind. The sense of achievement was like nothing else and the buzz blocked out the enormous tiredness. Team Stingray finished 22 out of 30 and although everyone involved will have a different story to tell, all will agree that it was an experience that ranks highly on the lifetime experience list. Champagne was sprayed and brief celebrations were had, before most of the team of drivers and mechanics fell into a comatose sleep dreaming of 2 cylinder engines and turn of the century French technology!

The pictures below give a snippet of what it was like to be there, but nothing can beat the noise, the excitement, the comradery, the barbeques, the motor home and the fun that was had. Team Stingray will be back next year to do it all over again, so you will have your chance to see it first hand. It’s an amazing weekend, so put it in the diary and join us next year!

Regards, Simon