Zandvoort

Saturday 14th April (optional extra sprint races which can be done with the Sakers):

(Friday night after 19.00 scrutineering / administration, or Saturday at 7.00)

Free practice: 09.20

Qualifying: 10.50

Sprintrace 12 laps: 13.35

Sprintrace 12 laps: 15.55

Provisional Timetable

Sunday 15th April

Entry and Scrutineering: 07.00 – 07.30

Free Practice: 09.00 – 09.25

Qualifying: 10.15 – 10.40

Race 1 – 12 laps: 11.35

Race 2 – 12 laps: 14.30

Main race – 70 minute endurance, one mandatory stop: 16.00

The first round of the Saker Challenge 2012 was held at Zandvoort, which also saw the first and last rounds of the 2011 series.

Although the main Saker races were to be held on the Sunday, both Tim Wheeldon in his Saker GT, car 43 and Paul Rose is his Saker Sniper, car 21, opted to enter the SuperSports class of the DNRT Auto A races, on Saturday as well.

Problems arose with Wheeldon’s clutch in the free practice session and whilst Rose qualified on pole for race one, with an impressive time of 1:48:614, Wheeldon failed to qualify as time ran out to repair his car by the end of qualifying: he would have to start from the back row.

Rose finished the twelve lap race in 2^nd place and Wheeldon finished in 7^th, after fighting his way through the traffic.

The grid for race two was decided by the results of race one and Rose was hoping for a race win after his earlier narrow defeat. As the lights went out, he had a great start, but was forced onto the grass at turn one by the DNRT V8 of Hans Lieshout. Wheeldon also started well, moving up to 3^rd place, right behind Rose, where he witnessed another incident between the two leading cars, when Lieshout forced Rose off the track at turn nine, dropping Rose down to 7^th and promoting Wheeldon to 2^nd. By the end of the race, Rose had regained 2^nd place and Wheeldon had dropped to 5^th.

Sunday dawned, bright but cold and both UK drivers’ lap times dropped by two seconds, leaving Rose and Wheeldon a disappointed 5^th and 15^th on the grid, respectively. After a red flag on lap one, the race was shortened to nine laps and Rose finished 3^rd, with Wheeldon moving up to 10^th. Race two’s starting grid was decided by the results of race one and Rose had a terrific race, setting the fastest lap with an inspiring 1:47.917 and missing out on a victory by only 1.5 seconds from Jadbalja’s car number 1. Wheeldon finished 9^th.

Race three was the feature event with a duration of seventy minutes and with twenty nine cars on the grid, it was set to be eventful. Rose had a great battle with the Jadbalja car and maintained 2^nd place until he pitted on lap five with a misfire, which turned out to be a loose HT lead. He emerged in 14^th place and behind Wheeldon, who had moved up to 8^th behind Johan Kraan Motorsport’s car 8. By lap sixteen, Rose had charged up to 7^th place and Wheeldon was up to 4^th as a result of the pit stops, but the Code 60 flags were waved due to oil on the track between turn eight and nine, effectively making every car drop to 60 Km/h.

Wheeldon took the opportunity to pit immediately and with the second-fastest pit stop of the race, the JPR mechanics refuelled car 43 and Wheeldon exited in P3. Rose pitted immediately after Wheeldon and re-joined in 9^th place. With half the race still to go, the Code 60 was removed and racing resumed.

Wheeldon overtook the Topspeed car 87 to move into P2 on lap twenty two and by lap twenty five, Rose was up into 7th. Wheeldon lost 2^nd place to the IDRT Car 11 and maintained 3rd whilst Rose moved up to 5th on lap 29. By lap 31, he had moved up to 4th and was closing on Wheeldon, who was receiving lap by lap updates from his race mechanic, Scott. It looked as if Rose had insufficient time to catch Wheeldon and despite a trip through the gravel on the final lap, as he desperately fought to catch up, Rose was classified 4^th with Wheeldon taking 3^rd overall and the final podium position.

The final classification was a combined result of all three races. This meant that Rose finished 3^rd overall for the UK.

Tim Wheeldon summed up the weekend: “A great weekend’s racing at a great circuit in a great car. Bring on Croft”.