Xero On Tour – 2004 – Snetterton – Rounds 5 And 6
Saturday 1, Sunday 0

Xero's Corvette had been offered what was supposed to be a helping hand by the organisers in the form of a marginally larger air restrictor from Snetterton onwards. "The only problem is, it doesn't make any difference whatsoever" was the view of team boss Dave Beecroft. His sentiments were certainly echoed by the drivers Ricky Cole and Peter Le Bas throughout the weekend.

This was something of a disappointment as the Corvette was visibly struggling on the straights and needed all the power-enhancing help it could get. "It is just so demoralising to be right up behind someone at the start of a straight and then watch them pull out four car lengths along it" was Ricky's verdict after qualifying yielded ninth place with a 1:11.049. "I got on the same bit of track as Mike Jordan and we were both trying to find some space but neither of us could get away. When Jordan pitted Cole then ended up squabbling with the series-returning Ultima and the Chevrolet powered Mosler. These frantic fifteen minute sessions often end all too soon. "Ah well, let's see what happens later" suggested that around Snetterton Ricky wasn't expecting the Corvette to be at the sharp end of the grid anyway.

Ten minutes later and Peter Le Bas was out qualifying for Sunday's race - the traffic was rather kinder to him and a 1:09.772 gave Xero sixth on the grid with only the quick Porsches, Ferraris and the latest spec TVR ahead. "Well, we tried" said a sweat soaked Le Bas "maybe its the heat but it feels less powerful than normal, or maybe its just that the Ferraris and Porsches are so quick! I said I was going to eat Ferraris for breakfast this morning, but I'll have to have them for dinner now..." Still, the prospects looked much better for Sunday.

And indeed after Saturday evening's race surely Sunday would be better? A spirited drive by Ricky Cole with much dicing in particular with Hyde in the Eclipse TVR was curtailed when "I felt the car squirm a bit at the bombhole and thought I must have had a puncture, but then saw my rear left wheel pass me! It was a fairly uneventful spin though but getting off the grass was hard - I revved it right up and went through a few gears whilst accelerating - I reckon the rear wheel was probably doing about a hundred miles an hour before I started to move back out onto the track. I just had to limp it round to the pits on three wheels, but I was in about two minutes before the driver change window opened so we ended up losing a fair few places."

Ricky was out again in fifteenth place two laps down on the leader, but at least the car was fine - though even the experienced Jay was left scratching his head as to why the wheel had chosen to part company with the car.

" The race was over really by the time I got in the car so I just thought I'd have some fun and pass as many cars as possible." And the plan worked - Peter's drive brought him back up the leaderboard to eighth overall - and a championship point. Most interesting however was the way he could keep up with and pass the Eclipse TVR, just rather a shame it was two laps ahead. "I had the pace on him but the car was getting pretty hot so I backed off and let him through, then it cooled and I put a charge on and closed him down again quite easily." Realistically, if the wheel hadn't fallen off, Xero could have been fifth, a theory backed up by them having the fifth quickest laptime of the finishers.

A local hostelry was chosen to wash the heat away with plenty of Guinness (and of course for Ricky, plenty of food) and the drivers returned to the circuit just in time to see a rather spectacular firework display - it sounded like Snetterton's 96th Bomb Group were back in effect!

Sunday's race was another scorchingly hot one but it was all too brief for Xero with the alternator belt being thrown off and some serious overheating sidelining the car. "I was having to really hang on everywhere to try and keep up with everyone - it wasn't looking too good and it definitely felt even further down on power today." Still, it looked quick and in real terms hadn't fallen too far behind the rest of the pack when the temperature gauge started telling its story. The car was parked up after 13 laps, but it wasn't clear whether significant damage had been done or whether it had been avoided

" The engine was probably due a rebuild because it certainly seemed to have lost its edge here, but I think the time for a rebuild has been and gone now. Still, Bob has a new engine on the dyno so we'll have to see how tricked up we can get it to be!" said an ever-upbeat Aiden Cole.

Lets hope it's a good one - Castle Combe is only a fortnight away.
Paul Slinger

www.xero-competition.com