Peter and I arrived at Snetterton race circuit at about 3 pm on Saturday afternoon. The weather was dry and bright and the temperature was a comfortable 20C, ideal for engines and tyres.

There were already a number of the usual racers practising and testing. While Peter was unloading things and readying himself for practise, I timed a few drivers to get an idea of a reasonable lap time. There were a few of the championship leaders out and sample times were around 15 seconds  Snetterton club had laid a slightly different, slower but more interesting track than last year.

Peter gets ready and after a hunt for the frequency peg board (cunningly hidden inside a box with no handle) we find that his frequency is in use, so a quick change gets him ready.

His first few laps are fairly cautious but a look at his times show a fasted lap of 14.53! Does this bode well or is everyone else fooling us. What does show up is the severity of Snetterton's kerbs. Some of them tip the car over if you look hard at them! Most of the revised track markings are very good, disturbing the car more, the more you get it wrong. Others can be run over if no attempt is made to get round them but throw the car completely off if you run 2 inches of the black stuff. I would not be happy if they were at our club.

Peter had managed to break a drive shaft, not an uncommon thing with the R12. Perhaps we have too much power! As he only had the plastic ones left and the Schumacher team shop does not come to Rubber nationals, I made a trip to the large Snetterton shop. Although they are a Tamiya outlet, they do have some spares for other makes and fortunately have a set of steel drive shafts for Schumacher touring cars.

So its back out and this time Peter's best lap is a 14.20. I'm not letting on to other mechanics who are timing their cars, but I hear that their quick times are around 14.30 so I'm quite pleased. Peter makes some changes to the setup and seems quite happy with the speed and handling. We do not like to tweak the mixture too much in an attempt to wring the last few rpm and Hp. The motor runs at about 80C which is a good, low temperature and means that the motor should have a long life. But things will probably be all different on Sunday.

After a very noisy and bright night's sleep (the A11 is very busy and there are STREET LIGHTS down the old runway next to our tent.) Sunday morning starts off bright and cool. The driver's briefing is held at 9am and racing starts at 9.30. Peter is car 4 in the top heat, reflecting his recent performances and increasing standing in the 'rubber' community.

The clouds were coming and it looked as if rain could again spoil our day, but the wind was also picking up to keep the rain away.

Round one and Peter is going well. The car looks stable and well balanced, and very quick. He is lapping in the low 14s and looking good until 4m 40 s when he hits THAT kerb and turns over. As well as being as far as possible from a marshal, the engine stalls and the race finishes before I can restart it. so instead of 2nd with a middle 21 he is 14th with only 19 laps. Better luck next round. Paul Knapton is on pole with 21/307.99 and a fastest lap of 14.35 (Peter 14.14, Bruce Thompson 14.04 and Joe Keaveney 14.08)

Round 2 is almost a repeat of round 1. Peter on for TQ and flips in the same place at the same time. So a minor improvement to 19 / 284 with the fastest lap of the round at 14.08. Paul improved his TQ to 21 /303.94.

Round 3 and what happens? This time Peter flips out after 2 minutes. I get things restarted but the time is lost and he now slips down to 19th overall. Tristan Guest, son of the Race director Jon Guest, who works at the model shop and should know his way round the circuit, puts in his best time and takes TQ with 21 / 302.71. Joe puts in a 13.84, the only person all day to get under 14s.

So its all down to round 4. With threats of dire consequences from his mechanic Peter takes things "easy". We have realised that the car is likely to be upside down at some time so we have changed the plug and put longer fuel lines in to stop it stalling (Hopefully). Half way through the race Peter again visits his favourite traffic island, but this time just infront of a marshal and the motor kept going!

Surprise, surprise. At the buzzer Peter had won the heat in a reasonable 21/ 310.25 that left him in 6th place. So the first goal had been achieved, make the A-final. When you race IC's you know very soon that once you are in your final, anything can happen. Running for 30 minutes is a different proposition from a 5 minute heat.

By this time the weather was looking more threatening. There was a suggestion of drizzle in the air, but the track was still in A1 condition as the finals started. The results can be seen below and in full on the BRCA 10th IC site. One result I was pleased with was David Thorns in the B final. All day we had been indulging in the Schumacher spirit and helping David set-up his car. He had been having problems with the car being very unstable but by using the "Peter principal" we had made enormous strides. Anyway, David started from 6th on the grid and even though he had Mark Christopher and Phil Barlow infront of him, he stormed the race, winning by a lap.

So the A-final started. In the opening laps, Tristan and Joe were having a close race for the lead, Simon and Peter were close for 3rd/4th. On lap 6 Joe dropped to 5th and Peter got through into 2nd. Paul had been making his way back from a bad start and by lap 9 was back in 2nd. Peter said he let him past as he was intent on staying in the race. He might say that, I wouldn't possibly comment!

The race stabilised a bit until lap 21 when the rain started getting heavier. Tristan and Paul were finding the conditions difficult and surprisingly came in for a tyre change. Tristan was certainly much better on his new tyres and by lap 27 was back in the lead. Paul was not fairing as well and dropped to 6th by lap 27. Tristan's lead only lasted 2 laps and he dropped out on lap 31. Simon was also finding the damp conditions drivable and by lap 29 was into 2nd place with Peter in the lead. Neil Pearce, starting from 9th in a Thunder Tiger, had made his way through the field into 3rd place. The rain was stopping and the track dried up almost immediately.

That was the way from lap 29 through to lap 115. Peter eventually won by nearly 5 laps, thanks to the combination of great driving, mishaps for other drivers, a very frugal engine (nearly 8 minutes between pit stops) and a brilliant mechanic (Me). We made the right decision about tyres based on 2 well understood principles:- 1 Peter is happier on slicks even in the wet and 2 we didn't have any wets!

So Peter's first National win. Hopefully the first of many. I hope we can carry the good form in the Rubber series through to the open series with more of the top drivers.