Racing gods go against Bradley at Snetterton

Bradley Gravett moved into the top ten in the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE with four solid race finishes from the latest rounds of the season at Snetterton, despite ‘the racing gods not being in his favour’.

Bradley headed into the weekend keen to try and bounce back from a disappointing home event at Brands Hatch two weeks earlier, where he had only been able to score points in one of the three races.

Snetterton promised to be a hectic meeting with a fourth race added to the schedule to replace the one lost due to poor weather conditions at Donington Park earlier in the year, and a promising performance during Friday testing saw Bradley go fourth quickest in his EXCELR8 Motorsport-run car.

That meant plenty of optimism heading into qualifying on Saturday morning but Bradley suffered from not being able to secure a tow along Snetterton’s long straights to end up eighth on the times when rain arrived and prevented any improvements towards the end of the session.

Before the three scheduled races, Bradley lined up fifth on the grid for the rescheduled Donington Park event which would be run in wet conditions. Maintaining his place at the start, Bradley ran in fifth place throughout to secure a solid haul of points ahead of the ‘first’ Snetterton race later on Saturday.

From eighth on the grid, Bradley had fought his way up into the top six and was part of a train of cars dicing for the podium places going into the lap and looked set to benefit when Lewis Selby and Max Hall clashed at Nelson.

Nipping through into fourth place, Bradley was lining up to try and attack for a top three finish when a hit from behind going through Coram instead knocked him off track and dropped him back down to eight place on the run to the line - with a post-race penalty for the contact eventually leaving him classified in seventh.

The Sunday morning reverse grid race provided more favourable weather conditions and Bradley again showed strong pace in the #10 machine as he found himself towards the front of a gaggle of cars dicing for fourth spot.

Going into the final lap sitting in seventh spot, Bradley was the victim of an over-ambitious move into the last corner that saw him run wide across the grass and meant be dropped back to ninth in a drag race up to the finish line.

The weekend finale offered another challenge with half of the circuit being wet, and half being dry but Bradley stayed out of trouble to bring his car to the flag in sixth place.

The points scored across the four races mean Bradley now sits tenth in the standings ahead of a short break prior to the Oulton Park double-header.

“The weekend went a lot better than it did at Brands Hatch but then again, I’d have been worried if it didn’t!” Bradley admitted. “We started off well in Friday practice but when it came to qualifying, we suffered a bit from the fact that we were running further down the order as I missed out on a tow when the circuit conditions were at their best before the rain started to fall.

“We certainly had a car that was capable of being higher up the grid as we had shown with our pace on Friday, but we just had to focus on trying to maximise the results across the races.

“The rescheduled race from Donington was a pretty uneventful race from my perspective and we came away from it with some solid points but in race two, I thought we were on for a podium when it all kicked off on the final lap. I managed to nip ahead of Lewis and Max when they got caught up with each other and had a look at getting ahead of Lydia [Walmsley] going into the Bombhole before backing out of it and trying to set up a move through Coram and into the final corner.

“Sadly I got a whack from behind instead from Lewis that cost me places and it was doubly frustrating as a top four result would have put us on the front row for the third race of the weekend.

“Even then, we were on for a strong result until the final corner when I got run wide and had to check up, which opened the door for some of those behind to beat me on the run up to the line, which was really frustrating.

“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced conditions like those in the last race as it was dry on one half of the track and wet on the other, and I feel I used my experience well to bring the car to the finish for another solid points finish.

“Overall I’d say qualifying was the key moment of the weekend in terms of where we ended up, although contact in two of the races also didn’t help my chances of getting the podium finish I was aiming for. The car has been amazing this weekend and the team did a great job but as the results on paper reflect, the racing gods just weren’t in my favour.”

🔥📸: Rebecca Howland

Bradley Gravett is supported by GERKO, Third Millennium, Ultimate Car Control, My Custom Workwear, Scalextric, Elite Vehicle Chargers, Flying TV, Bradbury Racing, Tesouro Timepiece.