After the highs and records broken at Croft it was always going to be hard to top what was a dream start for Olli at Croft. To recap, Olli became the youngest ever driver in history to stand on a Ginetta podium (Rookie) and the only driver to do so in their first race.
Heading into Snetterton Olli may have felt a slight bit of pressure to repeat that 5th place result, but there were no signs of that as he went and qualified 12th. However, Oli then had his best three laps taken away from him for track limits meaning he’d have to start all the way back in 20th!
Olli made a great start in race one, but was ran wide at turn three which dropped him all the way to the back of the field! Over the next 15 minutes, Olli was overtaking as much as he could and in just seven laps he made impressive progress to recover to 13th place! He did more overtaking than laps, who’d of thought it was only his second ever race meeting!
Snetterton could be argued as the hardest circuit on the calendar and it is probably the longest too! Lose half a tenth at each corner and you’ll lose over a second a lap, so for Olli the learning experience was fantastic, as was the racing!
Unfortunately, that second race didn’t go to plan with Olli not making it to the flag. It was a shame as after a bad start he was making fantastic progress and was up to 12th place knocking on the door of the top ten before being taken out by another driver who had taken to the grass. The contact was severe and had broken Olli’s rear suspension meaning he had to retire the car. It was a shame as he had overtaken several cars for a second race in a row and due to someone else’s error, he was now having to watch from the pits.
So overall it was a 13th and DNF for Olli, lots of overtaking done and despite the bad luck he had been able to get some valuable racing experience at the circuit for future seasons and will take the first result as a huge positive.
Olli would leave Snetterton slightly disappointed and feeling hard done by, but he had learnt some valuable lessons to take into Knockhill, a unique track that provides a tough challenge for any drivers racing whatever car they’re in!