With Wendy Ellis-Smith “abandoning” husband Paul for the weekend in favour of the all-girl at GT Radial line-up, Jamie Price and Paul Taylor made up the Fuelled Up Racing trio for last weekends Fun Cup Endurance 4 hours at Snetterton.
All three drivers were happy with their times in qualifying and when the draw for the starting grid was made they were 16th.
“I spent most of the session bedding things in and just making sure everything was Ok,” said Ellis-Smith.
“I really got the feel of the car compared with when I was out at Croft. It’s building my confidence now and I feel like I can race the car not just drive it,” Price added.
It was Price that was in for the first stint and initially dropped to 18th on the opening lap, but was soon hunting down Cassidy for 16th and by the end of lap seven he was through.
“I had a nice little battle, then got by, got clear and just kept pushing on,” he said.
Price had soon consolidated his place but his next target was moving further into the distance.
As the pitstop window opened he briefly gained a place, before stopping himself after 20 laps to hand to Ellis-Smith.
With the completion of the first hour soon following, they were still 16th but had gone a lap down on the leaders.
Soon some of their rivals began to hit trouble, and they began to the progress up the leaderboard. 15th on lap 30 became 14th three laps later, before pitting again from 13th after 38 laps.
“I had a couple of silly spins, but nothing major and the car felt great though,” he said after handing to Taylor.
They were back to 14th as the race reached it’s four half distance, with EDF’s Victor Kara and Coles their Quarry for further progress, as they had been throughout the entire race.
Into the final hour they were in 13th again, going through a second stint for each of the three drivers, before Smith-Ellis took over for the final part of the race.
Just before the final stop though they were caught by the recovering reigning Champions UVio/Hofmanns Lotus and so it was down to Ellis-Smith to take it to the flag in a solid 14th.
“Well I was pleased, no spins and I stayed on,” said Taylor. “I was more consistent this time and really enjoyed the whole race,” Smith-Ellis concluded.
The next round of the Championship is a two- race event at Anglesey, with the second into the night until 11pm.
After her top 10 finish at Snetterton, Wendy will be rejoining the team in North Wales, but it will be Price and Taylor sharing again, as husband Paul will be recovering from a forthcoming shoulder operation following a jousting injury.
The RAW Motorsports squad will hopefully have the Tachosys car of Alex Macleod and Paul Rivett back too for the Anglesey races.