Sarah at Sunny Snetterton

Friday practice was the first time Sarah had been in the car for a while but, being one of her favourite circuits, Sarah soon started to make progress.

Session one went well with Sarah getting faster and faster each lap and the team making adjustments to set up.  Session two, however, wasn't quite so successful!  For no apparent reason, Sarah went into the Esses and her front nearside wheel fell off!  All four bolts had sheared off, leaving the little Abarth nowhere to go other than in a straight line onto the dirt on the outside of the track!  The session was, therefore, red flagged whilst the marshalls did a sterling job to get the car onto the flatbed without causing too much more damage (very difficult with only 3 wheels still attached to the car!)

As a result, Sarah missed nearly two session of track time whilst Derek and Andy from Reflex Racing fixed the car and fitted a new wheel hub, bearings, hub nut and studs - and a new front splitter as a result of the journey into the dirt!

Sarah did, however, managed to get back on track before the end of the day to scrub in some new front slicks and also put in her fastest lap of the day.

"Losing the wheel mid corner was quite scary!" Sarah said, " although I'm just glad it happened in a slow corner or the damage would have been much more substantial.  I also lost a lot of track time as a result so am playing catch up again for tomorrow!"

Saturday began with signing on and a drivers briefing when all competitors were told that they would be penalised if all four wheels left the circuit and went over the kerb at any point.  This meant that everyone pretty much had to change their line through Sears which could also affect the speed down the longest straight on the track! 

Sarah & Paul Smith Qualifying

The Norfolk sun was shining and the temperatures already soaring as all of the Abarth drivers went out for a 25 minute qualifying.  Sarah went out and again chipped away at her lap times, finishing with a 1.24.520 which would place her 8th on the grid for Race 1 and 9th for Race 2.

Race 1 on Saturday afternoon was fairly uneventful!  Sarah got off to a good start and had a battle with Clio driver Alistair Barclay for several laps.  Almost every driver (including Sarah) got a black and white warning flag for going over the kerbs and several also had drive through penalties!  Sarah finished 8th and, despite the new line through Sears and her tyres going off, managed to put in a lap time of 1.23.968, nearly half a second faster than her qualifying on new tyres!  She was obviously getting to grips with the circuit and the car again!

Race 2 was a little more exciting!  Firstly, there was the heat!  Being the hottest day of the year so far and temperatures reaching 30 degrees, everyone agreed that a 30 minute race would be testing for everyone!  Sarah tried to keep as hydrated as possible before the race and even put her fire proof underwear in a bucker of cold water and her balaclava in the freezer!

Sarah trying to hold off Championship leader, Charlie Butler Henderson

Sarah started the race in 9th but, by the end of the lap 1 and the first lap melee, was in 4th!  A few laps later, Championship leader, Charlie Butler Henderson had caught up with Sarah.  She managed to hold off Charlie for a few laps before he got a tow down the back straight and passed her into the Esses.  Sarah tried to get the place back but Charlie just managed to edge away, leaving Sarah coming home in 5th place and her best result of the season so far.

"That was tough!" commented Sarah.  "The heat was just stiffling!  Overall, I'm very pleased with the progress that the team and I made this weekend.  We just need more time in the car which at the moment has been very difficult due to my work commitments.  We've made a huge leap forward this weekend though and we need to continue building on that."

The next round of the Zing Trofeo Abarth GB Championship will be at the Silverstone Classic weekend on the 24th and 25th July 2010.