Conditions catch out Pinkney at Snetterton

Sat 7th August 2010 Harpenden racer David Pinkney will start the opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Snetterton from 14th on the grid after a challenging qualifying session at the Norfolk circuit.

The arrival of rain shortly before qualifying got underway meant the session turned into something a lottery, with the Pinkney Motorsport team having to gamble on set-up to try and make the best of the conditions.

The two free practice sessions earlier in the day gave David the chance to try out changes made to his Vauxhall Vectra during the summer break and he lapped solidly in both – with the Vectra quickest through the speed traps in the first session and second quickest behind the LPG-powered Ford Focus in the second.

David headed into qualifying looking to build on the speed shown during practice, but the wet conditions worked against him and he will now line up on the seventh row of the grid for the first of Sunday’s three races.

“We’d got a good set-up for the dry and went out at the start of the session on slicks, but it was too wet and we had to come in and switch to wets,” he said. “We made changes to the car, but didn’t get the setting right and the car was difficult to drive with the rain coming down. It also didn’t help that my windscreen wiper failed, so it was tricky to see where I was going as the rain got heavier.

“However, I think we’ll be okay on race day as the car is good. We know where we went wrong with the set-up when it rained and we know we have a good set-up for tomorrow whether it’s dry or wet; it’ll just be a case of battling past people.”

Team manager Andrew Dean added that the result of qualifying was the best the team could have hoped for with the set-up fitted to the car, although he remains optimistic of fighting through into the points on race day.

“It’s a bit disappointing to be honest,” he said. “We got caught out by the conditions, although I don’t think we were the only ones. We went for a banker on slicks at the start but it was too wet and then didn’t get a full wet setting on the car. P14 is about all we could expect in the circumstances, which is a shame after the way we went in free practice.

“We’ve worked on the car during the summer break and gone more towards our own settings and they worked in practice; we just weren’t able to capitalise in qualifying. But we have a good car to take into race day whether it is wet or dry.”