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On the first weekend of August, SD teams MD Nick Jones and race partner Scott Malvern returned to action, at the Snetterton circuit near Thetford in Norfolk.
Disappointingly, the promised homologation pack for the Porsche Cayman GT4 car is yet to materialise which means that the duo are still at a disadvantage in performance especially given the hot & dry conditions. Co-driver Scott confirmed, “We were praying for rain. You’d think with all the bad weather and wet summers we have that we’d have a good chance of a wet race day but it never seems to happen when you need it. If it had been wet then an under powered heavy car would’ve been the thing to have but as it was it was a beautiful weekend, which of course was lovely for the crowd and the circuits ice cream sales but not great for us.”
Despite the disadvantage Scott kept within two seconds of the pole man on the fast Snetterton 300 circuit but this was only good enough to qualify 14th in the GT4 class and 26th overall out of 30 cars.
There were two one hour races in the glorious Sunday sunshine with Nick making a good start in race one to gain positions. Unfortunately a minor delay in the pits when another car blocked the SD teams Porsche exit at the driver change over undid this good work and the pairing eventually finished 25th.
For race two with Scott starting off he again gained positions and ran as high as 9th in class and 14th overall during the race which was impressive in the circumstances. Nick took over just past the half hour mark and continued to run at a consistent pace bringing the car home a respectable 11th in class and 16th overall as several of the faster GT3 runners ran into problems.
Afterwards Nick commented, “We have to take all of the positives. I feel my driving has come on a lot and Scott has confirmed this after examining the data. There are places now on the lap where I am matching his trace which is great. The Team Parker Racing outfit is doing an excellent job and with no testing we are only getting into the car at race weekends. But the weight of the car and lack of performance is really hurting us and until we receive the homologation pack from Germany there is not very much we can do about it.”
The pairing and the Parker Racing Team who run them are hoping to have the pack in time for the final round of the championship at Donington Park in September.
(Photographs courtesy of Jakob Ebrey Motorsport Photography)
