After two rounds of the 2012 championship the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship (BEC) makes its first visit of the season to Snetterton this weekend, for a third three hour race of the year.
Kevin Mc Glone – Red Square Images
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The BEC – Britain’s top endurance racing series, and the championship behind Britain’s only 24 Hour race – is unique on the UK’s national racing scene, offering fans the chance to watch multi-class endurance racing with grids of unrivalled variety. The cars on view range from open-cockpit prototype a-likes such as the flat-six.co.uk run Rapier SR2, through to more conventional GT cars like the Mosler MT900R, Ferrari 458, Lotus Evora and race prepared BMW M3s sporting splitters and wings.
In the three hour race, teams featuring two or three drivers make a number of mandatory pitstops, making strategy all important as the battle for the lead swings back and forth between teams and drivers
On the longer ‘300’ layout of the Norfolk track expect Andy Schulz (Ferrari 430), Javier Morcillo (Mosler MT900R) and Mike Millard (Rapier SR2) to fight for the lead once more, continuing their battles from the earlier races at Silverstone and Donington Park.
Reliability issues for their rivals at Silverstone allowed Spanish driver Morcillo, compatriot Manuel Cintrano and Paul White to score an overall victory in their first race together.
The trio were amongst the leaders at Donington Park in a thrilling race, in changing conditions, when a rain shower caught out Morcillo allowing the Ginetta G55 pairing driven by Mike Simpson and Lawrence Tomlinson to take victory in a one-off appearance in a GT3-spec Ginetta G55.
Tomlinson, the Chairman of Ginetta, will race once more at Snetterton, and again in a potentially race winning Ginetta G55 as he joins Ian Stinton and the Stark Racing team.
As well as for the overall lead, championship points are on offer in all four classes.
Topcats Racing bring their two instantly recognisable Marcos Mantis in Class 2 against Motionsport’s new-for-2012 Ferrari 458.
Class 3 features another new car – Bullrun’s Lotus Evora. The class winners at Donington Park with a three-strong driver line-up, featuring ex-BTCC driver Martin Byford, will be hoping to maintain their early season form with another winning performance this weekend.
With all the BEC racing action packed into Saturday and the race as the finale, spectators will get a full view of the championship as drivers run against the clock for qualifying honours, then against each other in race with the welcoming relaxed Britcar paddock presenting an opportunity to get more familiar with one of British racing’s best kept secrets.
Words: James Broomhead
Images: Kevin Mc Glone (Red Square Images)
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