It was so near yet so far for RAW Motorsports Steve Burgess and Ben Dimmack in the Dunlop Endurance Championship at Snetterton.Burgess had qualified their Ginetta G55 first in class and eighth overall for the first of the two one hour races and hopes were high of turning it into class victory.
Race 1: It was Burgess in for the start and he was straight into a duel with the similar car of Will Stacey. He headed the duel from the second lap, but two laps later the positions reversed, before further exchanges followed over the next nine laps.
Various incidents took their duel up to fifth place, with both drivers then making their stops for the driver changes under the safety car. “It had been an epic battle with Will but we had been held up a little by a Ferrari. But then I spun under the bridge and opened the gap a bit,” said Burgess.
Having rejoined in the same order, it was now Dimmack in the RAW car chasing down Sam Tomlinson, who had taken over from Stacey. But a stop go penalty for a short pitstop lost time and although still sixth, Tomlinson had got away and Dimmack was pursuing Peter Cunningham’s Porsche for fifth.
All three had then closed up again and on the penultimate lap Dimmack leaped ahead of both Cunningham and Tomlinson into a magnificent fourth, but then he was held up on his final lap, giving Cunningham the chance to repass and claim both fourth overall and the class win by just 0.533 secs.
Race 2:
In the second race Burgess had settled into an early sixth, before both he and Mark Cunningham moved up on lap four. But Paul Bailey’s Ferrari had caught them and split the duel from lap six. “We had changed the set up and it didn’t work for us. Bailey got me but I took him back around the outside at Coram, then he just drove away on the straight,” said Burgess.
He pitted from fifth but the success penalty added to their stop, left Dimmack to rejoin down in ninth.
Gradually he was back into contention with sixth by the end of the 26thlap. But Marcus Clutton’s Porsche came charging by four laps from home, leaving Dimmack with seventh and only 0.573 secs away from the Cunningham’s Porsche and a class win.
UK SPORTS PROTOTYPE CUP:
In the Sports Prototype Cup, Wheldon looked again to dominate the Revolution class, with pole and an overall lights to flag victory in Race 1, but technical
issues meant that he was forced into early retirement from the lead in both Race 2 and 3. Mark Hignett made his Revolution debut, and was rewarded for his hard work with P2 in the final Race of the weekend.
Barry Liversidge was a late entry for the Sunday race in the SR3 catergory, anddespite having to start from the back of the grid had a storming drive through the field to take P2 overall and in class in the Sunday race.