Chloe Hewitt and her Family team were at their local circuit of Snetterton last weekend for the latest rounds of the Mini Challenge.
The team are short of funds this season after a sponsor withdrew just before the season started but they managed to get enough backing for this weekend to be able to do some Friday testing although an oil leak limited running.
Qualifying saw Chloe running new tyres for the first time this season but things didn’t go to plan and she ended up seventh on the grid, a position she wasn’t happy with. Chloe felt confident of moving forward in the races though.
But by the time of the first race on Saturday afternoon, it started raining very heavily. Chloe had been hoping for a dry race but in some of the most difficult conditions imaginable she kept it on track and moved up a position to finish sixth.
The weekend’s other two races were on Sunday and by the time of the first of Sunday’s two races, the rain had stopped and the track had mostly dried out. However it was still quite slippery in places. Chloe made a good start as several rivals found themselves spinning out on the opening lap. Chloe then ran very strongly in fourth, looking to pass third place to reach the podium. Sadly on lap three she pushed a bit too hard and put a wheel on the grass. This spun her off the track but fortunately she stopped the car before the barriers and then quickly re-joined. She was soon up to eighth but before she could progress any further, a red flag came out for a crash elsewhere in the field. Race two was over and would not be restarted.
Race three was near the end of Sunday. Things went similarly initially and Chloe was well up the field with the pace to be in a top four position. Her front tyres were going off quickly though and causing understeer everywhere. She tried a slightly different line through Coram in an attempt to increase her pace but the understeer caused her to drift to the edge where she touched the white line. This spun the car round where it then bumped over the sausage kerb at Murrays. She was concerned that this may have caused damage so she headed to the pits for a quick check by the team. All seemed fine so she headed back out to complete the race in seventh. She may have finished slightly higher without the pit check but it wasn’t worth risking major mechanical damage which may have been possible if the kerb had damaged the sump.
Chloe spoke about the race three incident pit visit and her weekend after the race;
“Just to be safe I came straight into the pitlane. Where the team quickly checked the bottom of the engine and sent me back out to finish the race in 7th.
However a fantastic weekend with our Mini Challenge family. Thank you to everyone who came to support us and thank you for all the fantastic photos from this weekend.
Bring on round 3 at Silverstone on the 23rd on June.
Thanks to Rockoil, Hylton Gott Volvo, Peak Performance Reviews, Sussex Road and Race and East Coast Mini Club.” By Marc Waller
