Kelly Rogers Racing
Round 3 of the Mini Miglia Championship was held over two days, qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday.
The race transporter arrived at Snetterton early Friday evening so everything could be set up ready for qualifying on Saturday. With signing on and scrutineering later in the day on Saturday, Kelly arrived at the circuit at 11am all fired up for a promising weekend. Qualifying started at 15.35 for a period of 15 minutes, the sun was shinning and there was a cool breeze blowing. Kelly went out onto the circuit with the intension of doing two slow laps followed by a quick lap. The lap times started to come down until lap 4 when a time of 1.21.947 was recorded placing him at a good third position on the grid. Snetterton being a very fast and demanding circuit Kelly wanted to push harder and try to get himself on pole. As the laps continued Kelly was a became a little concerned about an engine drive problem which was hampering his ability to push harder and set a faster lap time. After completing 11 laps in the session, Kelly pulled in and aired his concerns with the mechanics who got to work straight away to find the problem and rectify it in time for the race. With the drive gremlin being a possible risk of another DNF, the decision was made to change the complete engine/gearbox combination.
Sunday morning and the race was at 9.00 am, the team awoke at 7am for a quick re-check of the car and prepare for the race. The weather was overcast but dry as the cars were called up to the assembly area ready for the race.
After the green flag lap all the cars lined up in their grid positions ready for the red lights to come on so the racing could commence. The lights go out and the 16 strong grid hussle for their positions into the first corner. Kelly slots into 3rd position chasing Sollis and Baldwin. Lap 2 and the whole pack are chasing the front runners, Kelly slips down to 4th but soon regains his 3rd position going into lap 3. The front 3 now have pulled about a two car gap on the rest of the field with Sollis leading and Kelly pushing Baldwin to the limit on grip with his under-steering car. The next couple of laps were full of late lunges, late braking and some superb driving from the three dicing cars. Now lap 7 and Kelly pulls alongside Baldwin and then slips into first position, lap 8 and Sollis drives around Kelly and Baldwin in a very brave move to regain the top spot, by lap 10 Kelly had retaken the lead and was trying to pull a gap on the, still but ever closer, chasing pack of about 10 cars. Lap 11 and Kelly gets sucked back in and Sollis pulls past, with the last lap looming the mind games have started with slipstreaming and what line to take into the last corner. As the top 3 race into the last corner, Baldwin leading takes a slow defensive line with Sollis and Kelly taking advantage of the faster sweeping line race upto the rear of Baldwin for the drag to the line. Sollis draws level to Baldwin as the finish line approaches with Kelly stuck behind the battling duo. As they cross the finish line Sollis had just pulled his nose passed Baldwin to take the win with a gap of 0.078 of a second with Kelly gaining fast to finish in a gallant 3rd position.
Round 3
Snetterton
