It Never Rains It Pours!

With rounds 3 & 4 of the JEC Toyo Tires Watchdogapp.com Saloon & GT Championship moved from Silverstone due to the changes in the F1 calendar, Snetterton in Norfolk a round trip of over 500 miles was our weekend destination. With a little more fettling since our last round at Thruxton we were optimistic of putting in another competitive performance with the XJR6 and being able to contest the podium places. We were pleased to awake on Sunday after the long drive on Saturday to a dry circuit, whilst overcast it was still warm. Qualifying got underway mid-morning and as normal our fellow Class D competitors Colin Philpott and James Ramm posted quick early laps, but it wasn’t long before Tom was splitting them and posting quick times of his own, however the session was red flagged when Simon Lewis’s XJ6 stopped on circuit with an alternator problem. Once the session resumed with eight minutes remaining Tom was quickly back into his stride and lighting up the timing screens with an improvement of almost two seconds to snatch pole position from Philpott and Ramm. With the first race of the afternoon after the lunchbreak the Jaguars rolled out of the paddock and into the assembly area ready for the race start. As they sat there waiting to be called out onto the circuit the heavens opened and three inches of rainfall came down in forty-four minutes, a downpour of biblical proportions. With the circuit flooded the marshal tried in vain to clear the water, the meeting finally being abandoned at 4.00 pm when a second heavy down ended any slim chance of racing. A disappointing outcome after what had been such a successful qualifying session. Onwards to our next rounds at Donington Park on 27^th September.