Round two of the Trackday Trophy brought the paddock up north to Lincolnshire for their yearly race at the wonderful Cadwell Park, with Kent racers Ben and Dan Abbitt looking to continue their strong form.
The Abbitt’s signed off from the first round of the season with a class win in a solid second place finish overall (Behind a Clio cup car no less) so it was only right that they had high expectations for the latest race.
Qualifying looked as if it would be a repeat of Snetterton with Ben charging to a pole time a good couple of seconds clear of the rest early on, but as the session wound down, so did everyone else’s lap times, and in the dying laps they were piped to the post by just a few tenths. Piped by a rear-wheel drive BMW no less, so you could write off any chance of leading in to turn 1!
As expected, as the lights went out it was goodbye BMW (which was being driven by Gary Burstow- until half way round the lap – then it was hello BMW again. The plucky Peugeot being the stronger in Cadwell’s tight, twisty forest section, while the BMW had the legs in the open first section.
The first ten minutes of the race saw a titanic battle between the BMW, the Peugeot, and a Mini Cooper which had managed to cling on to the back of this battle, but in a ‘Titanic’ way, it all went wrong.
Fortunately, it wasn’t an ice berg that ruined this one – it was Cadwell’s rough nature which resulting in the cars Inertia switch cutting the engine – thinking it had had a crash with the battering it was being given. The guys dropped numerous laps back as Ben had to re-set the car – this, leaving just the two up front, but unfortunately, this only lasted an extra lap as the beamer dropped it and backed it in to the fence – it was game over and pressure off for Simon Clark in his Mini as he nursed it home for the win.
With the Peugeot re-set, Dan clambered in for his stint but this was all a wasted effort with them trailing five laps behind due to the on-track stoppage – this didn’t deter Dan as he picked his way through the field and at least proved that they were a genuine contender for this race. The guys also posted the quickest lap of the race which is something I guess!
At least being a series, there’s no championship table to be effected with this fluke result – so all is good with in the Abbitt camp with sights set on the next race, at their home track, Brands Hatch (May 16/17th). Still looking for their first overall victory, Brands would be a great place for them to achieve this – and I wouldn’t bet against it!