The Raptor Paymundo team of driver Tony Brown and passenger Ashley Hawes returned to action after a break of two months in the Eastern Airways Formula one British sidecar championship at the 2.9 mile Snetterton 300 circuit in Norfolk.
This is a very technical circuit,with the two sidecar races running along side the British Superbike championship over the weekend of the 13th to 15th June 2014.
Practice took place on Friday 13th. In sunny conditions they covered 10 laps finishing in fourth place. Tony’s plan for the Saturday’s qualifying was to take it steady for a few laps to run everything in. It seemed to work as they managed six good laps averaging just under 90 mph and qualifying in fourth place behind Peach/Richardson, Hegarty/Neave and a superb third place from James/Christie.
Afterwards the boys were happy with their position on the grid. Since the front suspension was rebuilt the team haven’t altered anything and they both felt it could be handling better. A word with the suspension guru Patrick Farrance gave them ideas for a better set up on their 1000cc Yamaha powered outfit, which also had a new 2008 specification engine.
Saturday’s afternoon eight lap race one was a difficult affair. Settling into a good pace and running near the front the race was stopped on lap three with oil on the track.
The restart was a six lap sprint late on Saturday afternoon. A fast and furious start by the leaders saw the Paymundo sponsored team battling with several other outfits. Getting tied up with the JH Racing team of Holland/Watson saw them lose ground on the leaders but they still finished in a great fourth place.
Afterwards Tony said he would have liked first but with a brake issue developing they were pleased with the result.
Sunday
With the head of Paymundo at the circuit the crews eagerly awaited their prime-time slot mid afternoon, Sunday race accompanied by live Eurosport TV coverage, a further incident by an earlier Superstock solo race, again dictated that the three-wheelers be re-scheduled at the end of proceedings.
From the start Tony and Ashley were up amongst the leaders, coming out of Aggos left hand bend they had a big moment and nearly lost the outfit but recovered brilliantly. However starting lap two the engine developed a sensor problem which caused them to retire.
Naturally disappointed the pair are now looking forward to the next round at Knockhill in Scotland in just over a week’s time.
Huge thanks to all our sponsors, we couldn’t do it without your help and support
Wallace interior solutions
Keith Whiting
Ian Hamilton at Express Tyres
Herne Bay Motorcycles
Infinity Pro
Jennifer Shone at Knox
John Mcqueen at LS2
Ros and Lawrence Tumber
Surlingham Solutions
AMR Exhausts
Sam Christie
Sam Ryder
Steve English
And of course all our family and friends supporting us, fingers crossed our luck picks up from now on 🙂
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