Following our excellent debut at Silverstone 3 weeks previous, we all knew it was going to be a tough act to follow. Brands Hatch is at the opposite end of the scale to Silverstone with it being a tight twisty circuit with undulations and many camber changes that will highlight any chassis and set up deficiencies that would not be evident at other circuits.
We knew that Snetterton would be a totally different proposition with 2 long straights each with slow corners before them. Acceleration, traction and power are the fundamental requirements at this circuit, together with good balance for the awesome 'Coram' corner which is taken at full throttle and on a 'knife edge' of grip.
I was really looking forward to this meeting. In my opinion, the GP circuit at Brands is very underused. It’s a great venue. Although the Indy circuit is also a favourite of mine, especially for sprint racing, the GP circuit is better for endurance racing and large grids.
Coming into the Snetterton race our European Endurance Race season had so far netted 4 class wins – one outright – and 2 second places: all from only 6 starts. This is remarkable by anyone's standards, even more so when you consider that our Mazda RX8 has a totally standard rotary engine and gearbox.
What more can we say about the pace and reliability of the EERC Mazda RX8 other than quick and faultless. 5 class wins, including 1 outright win, and 2 second places with numerous class poles and fastest laps.