Charlotte Birch was at Snetterton last weekend for the latest rounds of the Junior Saloon car championship (JSCC). Her and the team’s trip there was made a lot easier this time with the debut of their new transporter.
Rather than an ageing under powered van towing a trailer, there was now a much bigger box truck transporter with space to keep the car undercover as well as a living area in front.
The new living area gives Charlotte more space to relax and concentrate on her racing and with the psychological aspect of racing being so important, hopefully this will help give her a boost on track too. It certainly stood out in the paddock with a livery by sponsor Blue Lizard signs. Power was provided with a generator supplied by another sponsor, Fixings & Power Tools Center.
First up was testing and with Charlotte now being 16, she was allowed out in the senior sessions. This gave her more track time and meant she could lap away from her rivals. With her coach, Jake Hill she worked on improving her performance throughout the day and the times would put her well into the top five. Hopefully this would carry through to qualifying and the race.
The race weekend itself was all on Saturday as the JSCC was support the 2CV 24 hours which would run from 5pm on Saturday until the following day. This would mean the whole day would be very frantic with qualifying and then two races within a few hours of each other.
Qualifying was first thing and Charlotte’s improvements from last year were really showing, particularly around the fast Riches corner were she had perfected the perfect line and entry speed. Unfortunately, she found she was losing time on the other side of the circuit. Only a tiny amount but with most of the field only separated by a second, a tiny amount was enough to drop several places. Despite this, Charlotte was still a strong eighth for race one but a slightly disappointed eleventh for race two.
As the lights went out for race two she got a good start and had a good battle with Jemma Moore. But a crash elsewhere in the order brought out the safety car meaning there wasn’t much time in the race to actually battle. Charlotte gained and lost places ending up where she started in eighth.
Race two would be tougher, starting from eleventh. But Charlotte had her best start of the day, She was quickly up to seventh fighting for sixth place. A quick rival slipped past her towards the end of the race but eighth was a good result in the circumstances.
“I had a great day at Snetterton today two very respectable 8th places. I made some great moves and some good defending so I’m pleased with my race craft progression.” Said Charlotte after the second race. She continued;
“It’s definitely time to improve my qualifying sessions and banish those nerves though. If I had my Friday pace I could have qualified around fourth or fifth. But it was a good haul of points even if it wasn’t quite the placings I had hoped for. But I’m happy that we’re all back safe and sound ready for Anglesey in 2 weeks to go for it all again. Thanks to my sponsors Blue Lizard Signs, Herock Workwear, Fixings and Powertools centre and Toyotec for their support this season.
As Charlotte mentioned, next up is Anglesey in North Wales. With most of the field having little or no experience of the circuit, it should level the playing field giving Charlotte a chance to move up the order. By Marc Waller
