Arriving at Snetterton in Norfolk for the penultimate meeting for Pead would be a welcome sight as he won three out of the four 2004 ELF/BTE Lawline Renault Clio Cup races here last year.

Friday’s practice saw the top three in the championship, Ed Pead, Paul Rivett and Jonathon Adam heading the times, with only two tenths of a second separating them. It was no surprise to see these three in front during qualifying. Adam set the pace with Rivett behind and Pead being knocked down to fifth in the dying seconds by SpeedEquipe’s two drivers Ian Curley and Richard Williams.

Round 17 began with the ultra fast-off-the-line Ian Curley who got the jump on Rivett and Adam to lead into the first corner. Pead slotted in behind Adam and the trio chased down Curley. On lap 2 Rivett made his way past Curley with Adam and Pead bumper to bumper. Pead dropped away as his car began to understeer more and more every lap and on the seventh lap there was a red flag as Tom Onslow-Cole had rolled at the end of the back straight. Pead said after the race “I don’t know what has happened to my car but it went off very rapidly. If it hadn’t been for the red flag I probably would have ended up further back. We have to check the car and make sure everything’s ok for tomorrow’s race, unfortunately I could see with every lap my championship slipping away. It wasn’t very nice”.

Sunday’s race was vital for Pead as he couldn’t afford to let Rivett and Adam increase the points in the championship further. With Adam starting on pole, Rivett third and Pead fifth, this race was set to be far from placid. At the start it was Pead who glued himself to the back of Rivett round the first corner but it was Waterworth, with the run on both of them managed to squeeze himself between the two. Pead was having none of this as it was a fight for the championship. Into the second part of The Esses, at the end of the long back straight approaching at 120 mph, Pead shot up the inside of Waterworth and back on the tail of Rivett. Towards the end of the second lap Pead was hit by Waterworth and as a consequence left his front bumper trailing on the back of Pead’s car. Pead lost out dramatically as he was losing three to four car lengths down the straight. “I was hit by Waterworth and I instantly lost straight line speed. I thought he hit my exhaust and closed it up, it wasn’t until I got back to the pits and got out that I saw his bumper was on the back of my car. It must have been acting like a parachute down the straights. I’m definitely not happy now as I go to Donington trailing Rivett by a larger margin than I anticipated”. By the time Rivett fought his way to second it was Richard Williams who pulled out a lead and held this to the flag to become the sixth driver of the season to win a race. All Pead could do again was to sit in fifth and watch the battle ahead.

The Championship continues at Donington Park on 25/26th September.

 

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