2010 2cv 24hr Snetterton – A view from the car that achieved the fewest laps!

I appreciate that this is a rather belated note – but this season just seems to have flown past so quickly and with so much activity at Snetterton and other circuits I must admit that this is the first opportunity I have had to sit down and put a few notes together.

Firstly, may I apologise if my report on this year’s 24hr appears a little lacking on content compared to previous seasons……there is a reasonably good reason and it is nothing negative against the race weekend ……but it is quite simple really.  I must admit that during my 4hr stints on duty there was only so much that one could see from the Observers seat in the BMW M3 when parked in the pitlane!
Options included the view of the pitwall at approx 45 degrees in front which manages to hide most of the on track action, or the antics of our superb startline marshals, allowing for the fact that there’s 24hrs between waving the Green Flag for the rolling lap and waving the Chequered at the end of the race!!! Ok, yes I know that the competitors and the team in Race Control provide many reasons to keep them busy during the event with drive through and stop and go penalties and the safety car periods – more of that subject later! 

Yes , I had the benefit of not being able to see much of the race but at least having an extremely comfortable seat in the warm and dry and with some extremely good company in the form of the various safety car drivers to chat to whilst awaiting the call to go on standby. Oh and yes I do remember some of the comments from the startline crew when the heavy rain came in the night as we closed the window and turned up the heater ……purely to demist the windscreen – honest!

During the 4hr periods off duty I didn’t see much either ……owing to having eyes shut whilst trying to grab some sleep between sessions or trying to sort out some food and drink!!

One of the aspects of this years 24hr that certainly became very evident to the safety car teams was that we were very rarely required to actually go on circuit this year, which is a credit to all the participating drivers and their support teams.

Compared with previous years there were very few incidents or breakdowns on circuit requiring recovery so the reliability factor throughout the field was obviously greatly improved this year.

I must admit that we in the safety car during the 2am to 6am stint were extremely pleased with this trend when the early morning torrential rain came down quite suddenly and looking out of my passenger window all I could see was an absolute torrent of rainwater running down the pitlane. I remember saying to my driver at the time that I really hope we do not get a scramble as with the amount of water on the track we would be struggling for grip whilst the 2cv’s wouldn’t even notice the conditions and would be all over us! Amazingly we didn’t get a call to scramble, again credit to the driving skills of the 2cv guys and girls on circuit.

Must say a really big thank you to all those who kindly volunteered to marshal and officiate over the weekend – absolutely brilliant job once again. Far too many to mention individually but you all know who you are!  It is the positive, can do manner and spirit in which so relatively few can organise and run a 24hr event that makes the weekend what it is – a really enjoyable fun weekend for everyone, be they marshals, officials, competitors, team members or circuit support staff.

To all the competitors and team members we wouldn’t have so much fun during the 24hrs without you! To all the MSV circuit staff for everything you do to assist and make everything so easy for the rest of us – thanks team. 

Here’s to seeing you all back again in 2011.

Terry Scannell