Trice on form at Snetterton
The second round of the Porsche Cayman Sprint Challenge proved to be another bumper event for Toby Trice as he secured yet another race victory while consolidating second place in the championship.
Trice went into the weekend with some caution and apprehension knowing that Snetterton isn’t his most favourite circuit on the calendar. But after getting some practice in on Friday, it helped Trice get reacclimatised with the track.
However, when it came to qualifying he put any concerns firmly behind him as he went out and edged Raceway Motorsport’s Marc Warren to take pole position for Race 1 by a minuscule 0.015 seconds.
And given his previous form at the track, Trice couldn’t believe he set the pace as soon as the weekend got going.
“Come qualifying I had so much pressure to put the lap of my life together and hope to get that second pole position,” he said.
“And it came, which is unbelievable!
“I was so happy to get pole position again.
“That’s two out of two now for the championship which I am really proud of. I still can’t believe I got pole position at Snetterton.”
But the good news didn’t stop there. Starting the opening race of the weekend from the front, Trice took total control when the lights went out, and superbly held his team-mate Steve Roberts at bay to win the race by 0.830s.
“It was a huge race for me because I had Steve Roberts behind me the entire race,” said Trice afterwards.
“He was putting a lot of pressure on and so I just kept my cool and kept my race together and brought home another win, which is really fabulous! I’m so grateful.”
As always the technical nature of Snetterton meant that overtaking was always going to be tricky over the duration of the weekend and it proved no exception for the Porsche Cayman Sprint Challenge.
With Trice starting Race 2 from fourth on the grid, it meant a second race win of the weekend would elude him, but nonetheless, he raced well to bring the car home in fifth overall and fourth in class, having hounded Joe Warhurst for the majority of the race.
It was a similar story in Race 3, with Trice unable to find a way past the Team Parker Racing car, but although he was unable to find the podium again, he did prove his underlying pace by setting the fastest lap overall in Race 3.
“Snetterton was really difficult to push for an overtake.
“It just seemed that in these cars we were unable to make a move.
“I know the top five or six didn’t change position all race aside from the first few corners.
So it was a little bit disappointing for the race fans for that one, but we managed to bring home a really good points haul for the championship.
“I’m still P2 in the series, nine points behind Steve Roberts, so I’m really happy with the progress and let’s see what comes for the rest of the season.”
The season's next race gets underway at Croft on 29-30 July.
