The first race of 2008 and the first race for Rob for 3 years was a resounding success with a fantastic 2nd in class and and unbelievable 10th overall. The second round of the BritCar Championship was a four hour race held at Snetterton in Norfolk over the weekend of 19th & 20th April. Despite threatning, the rain stayed away for the free practice and qualifying on Saturday. The pracitce session was all about seat time for Rob and Paul Fenton following a good test day on the Friday where a good set up was found early. Qualifuing went without a hitch with Hedley and fenton sharing the 30 minute session. Fenton went out first and set the fastest lap possible in the cold cloudy conditions putting the Moore Racing Honda Civic Type R onto the 28th grid position showing his greater experience of GT racing. Rob finished the session just 2 tenths of a second behind Paul.

Raceday dawned grey and wet with Fenton driving the 15 minutes warmup on full wets. "The team needed to do a fuel run so they could work out the fuel burn rate in the changing conditions" commented Rob. "This then helps to calculate the race strategy and from the calculations we realised we could do the whole race with just one stop". The start of the race was preceded by a minutes silence in honour of David Leslie, Richard Lloyd, Chris Allarton and the two pilots killed in the Farnborough Air Crash. Present at the very front of the grid was the 1989 Aston Martin AMR1 said to be Davids favourite ever race Car and representative of the pinnacle of his Career.

Following the clearing of the grid, the race got underway with the Cars forming up behind the pace Car for the rolling start. The initial start was aborted as the pack was broken up when coming back to the start line so the pace Car was redeployed to bunch the Cars up and this time the lights went green and the 4 hour countdown started. With the class 1 cars pulling away, Fenton settled down for his 2 hour stint and was setting very competitive class 4 lap times. Unfortunately the mechanical gremlins stuck and Paul lost the use of 4th gear in the first 30 minutes of his stint. After an initial drop in speed, Fenton soon got back onto the pace testament to his skill behind the wheel of a Racecar. Following a fantastic 2 hour drive, Paul pulled into the pits to hand over to Rob. Following a Tyre change and refuel, Hedley then jumped into the Car for the remaining 2 hours of the race. Unfortunately, a problem with the refueling rig delayed the stop by another 20 seconds but Rob was still in the lead of Class 4. "My initial laps were a steep learning curve for me with the loss of 4th gear, especially as Snetterton has 3 corners taken in 4th in the Honda" stated Rob. "However the biggest problem was the two long straights following 3rd gear corners. Having to go from 3rd to 5th really killed the acceleration". Rob then settled in for the first ever 2 hours session of his career and started setting some very competitive times and holding the second place BMW M3 of ex Formula 1 Driver Mike Wilds at bay. Unfortunately, following an hour and a half of driving a slight mistake entering the ultra quick riches corner and spun. Rob managed to keep the Car out of the barrier and rejoined the race in second place of class 4.

Coming into the final three quarter of an hour of the race, Rob was called in for a splash and dash fuel stop. This was due to the problem with the refueling rig at the previous stop meaning the Team weren't sure of the amount of fuel remaining in the Car. Hedley then pulled out retaining 2nd place and started chasing the leading BMW. With the end of the race in sight and knowing the Wilds BMW needed to pit, Hedley slowed the pace slightly to preserve the Car and ensure it reached the finish. This strategy didn't work out as the Wilds BMW managed to pit under the Safety Car following the Ginetta G50 hitting the inside barrier at Riches and ending up parked in the middle of the corner. This negating the advantage the Moore Racing Honda had and ensured Rob stayed in 2nd place for class 4. Rob then settled down to getting the car home. This was nearly put into jeopardy after the class 1 Porsche of Collis/Mason missed its breaking point into the Russell Esses and punted Rob off. Fortunately Hedley managed to keep the Car going and pulled back on the circuit still in 2nd place. The race was completed with no further problems despite a damaged exhaust and bodywork as a result of the incident.

Rob, Paul and Moore racing were very pleased with a second place in class and tenth overall beating quicker cars such as BMW M£ GTRs, Porsches, Moslers and TVRs. Team principal Richard Moore commented about the win "Thats the way to go endurance racing, we have showed today that class 4 cars can compete with the more exotic GT cars. We had a few problems but the overall strategy worked well and reulted in an fantastic overall position". Rob stated "I am very pleased with this weekend. I was a little annoyed with my spin but shouldn't be too hard on myself. It is my first race for 3 years and the first race in a front wheel drive Car and the first time I have done a 2 hour stint in a Racecar. I am looking forward to the next round and hopefully we can repeat the good result."

Final Results