Everitt Marches back into action at Snetterton

28/04/11 11:05

After a ten year absence from competition but a daily involvement in motorsport via his on-line insurance website MoRIS, Justin Everitt showed he had lost none of his competitive spirit with an action-packed drive at Snetterton in Norfolk last weekend.

Racing in the fiercely competitive Sports 2000 Championship in a 150bhp 2-litre Ford Duratec powered March chassis, Everitt was delighted to be back in the thick of it, enjoying not only his first race in the Duratec engined class, but also driving the new Snetterton 300 circuit for the first time.

“Obviously I’m feeling pretty rusty” smiled Everitt “But the guys at KW Motorsport have looked after me brilliantly and I’m getting quicker with every session.”

Qualifying was as always a frantic affair, with the established front runners fighting hard for Pole Position, whilst Everitt quickly established himself in the top ten times, despite a huge high speed spin at the fearsome Coram Bend.

“That woke me up! It was probably a good job I span there cos it reminded me just how quickly you’re travelling here, and how long it’s been since I pushed a car that hard! Main thing was the car was ok – at least I know the insurer!”

Despite that excursion Everitt managed to exceed his and the team’s expectations by qualifying a superb 5th on the grid, just 1/10th of a second away from the car ahead. At the start of the race Everitt dropped the clutch and initially got a good getaway, however a ‘tall’ first gear meant the car quickly bogged down and he was swamped by the pack, ending up 9th at the first corner. A spinning car ahead meant a huge dust cloud enveloped the circuit causing cars to scatter but somehow all emerged unscathed. So a charging Everitt got his head down and gradually began to work his way forward, ending up a delighted 5th at the end of the race.

“A rubbish start, a crazy first lap and then a fun race – that pretty much sums it up!”

"Kieron Salter, Team Principal - For Justin To finish 6th in his first race in 10 years, with a new car that he had only tested for the first time on Thursday is a great result and testament to Justin's natural ability as a driver and the driveability and of the 09R racecar.

On Thursday for Justin's first test in the car he was clearly anxious about driving a wings and slicks car again and the reality of the upcoming race debut must have been very exciting, Justin worked up to a quick pace within just a handful of laps and by the end of the day was clearly relaxed and confident about racing the car.  For the race weekend we had made some changes to the car, ratios, dampers and in Qualifying Justin rose to the challenge setting his best time of 1:56.5 a significant improvement over his testing times.  Starting P5 on the grid was very impressive.  Unfortunately in the race the field got split into two groups when Rupert Russell span on the first lap the first 5 cars were unaffected but the subsequent chaos left Justin in P8 but by lap 7 he was back up to P6 and leading the second pack of cars to the end of the race. A great start to the season, we are now looking forward to Cadwell in two weeks time."

“When I was first racing single-seaters 20 odd years ago in Formula First and Formula Forward it was always a track I loved. Its one of the few tracks that remains unchanged, a real drivers track, often referred to as a ‘Mini Nurburgring’ so with the cobwebs shaken off I’m confident I can start making more progress” said Justin.

The distinctively liveried MoRIS March will be racing throughout the UK in 2011.

Thanks to Kieron and Andy from KW Motorsport for all their support.

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