Snetterton Britcar

With Silverstone having been such a disappointment for the team - the DNF doing serious damage to its championship aspirations, if not the car - CBT/Apex  Motorsport arrived at Snetterton with renewed determination; and a firm belief that another podium finish was within reach.

All three drivers were present for testing on the Friday and they were accompanied by the Apex XKR, which was being tested by Ben Clucas and Chris Diamond; although only the CBT Jaguar would be racing. This was a major advantage for Stuart Scott’s team, because it meant that adjustments could be made to one car and then compared directly against the other.

One change made to the Apex car, but not applied to the CBT Jag, was the replacement of the master brake cylinder. Despite this, Mark Sumpter was quicker on Friday morning on old Dunlop rubber than either of the Apex drivers on Michelins. For the rest of the day, the team worked its way through various settings around ride-height and stiffness.

Also present at the Friday test were two old friends; Steve Wood and the fabulous VW Golf. On two year old rubber, the Golf set a time that would have put it on the front row of the Production race and several teams were pleased that it wasn’t racing.

There would be a great deal of track activity on Saturday, too, with a one-hour free-practice session in the morning, a 20 minute warm-up mid-afternoon and a one hour qualifying session late in the afternoon.

As is normally the case with practice sessions, top speed is rarely a priority; and the CBT crew were satisfied with steady progress and a 1:11.024 fastest lap. The speed would be held in reserve until qualifying, where it was most definitely needed.

Mark Sumpter was once again the team’s choice to set the qualifying time and he wasted no time in getting down to business, setting a 1:09.747 on only his ninth lap. This was to remain the car’s best time and would in fact be uneaten for a further 20 minutes, before the Beaumont/Taylor Mosler went faster.

Pole was always going to fall to one of the two Moslers and it eventually went to the Eclipse car, which set a time almost three seconds faster than Sumpter in the last minute of the session – highlighting in the process a significant issue with the equalisation measures taken in the Class 1 category.

But it looked as though the Jaguar would remain ‘best of the rest’, and only a banzai lap from Keith Robinson in the MJC Ferrari 360 late in the session prevented this from being the case. The CBT team had wrapped up their session at this point and decided not to respond; fourth place on the grid exceeding expectations already.

With heavy Sunday morning rain causing delays to the race programme, the scheduled warm-up session was sacrificed in order to enable the four-hour race to run to its full duration before the curfew; so no further opportunity existed to make tweaks.

After being taken out of the race so early at Silverstone, Chris Ryan elected not to start; that honour instead going to Sumpter – and once again he made the most of it.

Despite being a Porsche specialist, Sumpter proved himself to be pretty useful with another prestigious marque as he took the Jaguar past the Ferrari at the rolling start.

He could do nothing about preventing the invitation Opel V8 Star of Phil Bennett taking third from him, but he was able to keep the Ferrari behind. For lap after lap, the duel continued – for the most part just a few tenths apart – but on lap 19, the Jaguar had a spin and dropped a place.

By the time his first stint ended, on lap 29, Sumpter had brought the gap back down to just over three seconds. Now it was Chris Ryan’s turn.

A good consistent run from the Surrey builder kept the car in a strong fifth place and well in contention. The one-hour bulletin showed the car in ninth - due entirely to the timing of pitstops – but just a couple of minutes later the Opel retired and the CBT Jaguar was effectively in fourth.

Stuart Scott had the frustration of two safety cars during his stint, the second incident causing the race to be red-flagged for 12 minutes as debris was collected and a driver seen to after a heavy shunt. But steady driving again kept the car well in contention and its owner was in third when he handed it back to Mark Sumpter.

However, Scott had also suffered a spin during his stint and it was clear that the car wasn’t 100%; “I never spin,” asserted Scott. “We’re not getting feedback from the brakes and it doesn’t seem as though the car is slowing down; as we’re downshifting, the engine is still running on. There’s always been a small problem with the brakes on this car; but with the latest, more powerful, engine, it’s more noticeable!”

Even with a brake problem, Sumpter dropped into the 1:11s and kept it there in a hugely impressive display of consistent driving. Third place was secure until the final driver change just before the hour, at which point Chris Ryan got in.

All was going to plan – the car retaking third after the Ferrari’s stop – until lap 165; at which point Ryan became the third CBT driver to have a spin as a result of the brake problem. The Jaguar fell back to fourth once more, but Ryan pulled himself together quickly and set about reducing the small gap to the MJC 360.

But disaster struck with just 15 minutes of the race remaining. Seeing a Mosler rapidly approaching in his mirrors, Ryan moved over to allow himself to be lapped. However, when the Mosler didn’t come through as expected, the Jaguar took its line into the next corner; which was when the faster car decided to go past. The XKR got by far the worst of the ensuing collision and could only limp back to the pits to retire.

This was a crushing blow for the team after such a strong run and even though the car was classified 12th at the end, this was in no way a just result.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Stuart Scott afterwards. “To be put out like that so close to the end is hard to stomach. But once again, the guys drove brilliantly and the team did a great job on the car – we’ve shown that the pace is there.”

Indeed, the Jaguar’s pace – running in full GT3 spec at Snetterton this weekend – would have put it well up in the top six of the British GT cars that raced at the circuit earlier in the year.

But this was the CBT Racing Jaguar XKR’s final domestic race of the season. With the unexpected demise of the team’s primary sponsor, Silverjet, the decision has been taken to concentrate the remaining funds on developing the car for 2009.

The car will, however, take part in the Dubai FIA GT3 races in December, where, for the first time, three Apex Jaguars will take part