The latest round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship was held at the Norfolk circuit: Snetterton.
With difficult weather conditions and an incident during the second race, the seventh meeting of the season proved to be the toughest so far for Martin and the Geoff Steel Racing Team.
Saturday qualifying saw Martyn 17th on the grid. 鈥淨ualifying went well and we pulled away from the group I was in and latched onto the next group I need to fight with. We were struggling with straight line speed down the Revett Straight. I wasn鈥檛 getting the power on early enough at Sear, which meant I was then losing three or four mile per hour on the straight 鈥 so it was off for a walk in the rain for me and Geoff to have a look at that part of the circuit.鈥 The first race of the day came with tough decisions for the teams in the paddock due to heavy rain falling throughout the morning. With the track continuing to dry, as the cars headed towards the grid the choice to opt for wet or dry tyres was crucial. Martyn and the team elected for wet tyres, which seemed like the right move as the BMW crept towards the top ten. But as the race went on - and with the track drying out - the tyres worked against Martyn and he couldn鈥檛 avoid being pushed back to 14th place at the flag. The weather conditions were looking better for race two, but for Martyn it ended before it had really begun. The rear wheel drive BMW rocketed away off the line, but as Bell turned into the first corner he was greeted by the sight of Dave Pinkney鈥檚 Honda Integra going sideways in front of him. Driving outside in an attempt to avoid the spinning car, Martyn was left with nowhere to go and was launched over the front of the Motorbase Performance machine, briefly going onto two wheels before crashing back to the ground and retiring on the spot.
 | | Martin at full speed |
Martyn explained 鈥淚 got a cracking start but when I got to the first corner, Pinkney was sideways in front of me and I had absolutely no where to go and we took the corner off the BMW.鈥 After the incident with Pinkney the the team were left with a great deal of work before the final race of the day 鈥 but the car was fixed and took its place on the grid. As Martyn sat in eleventh place, it was looking like a points finish for the second consecutive meeting. However Pinkney and Mike Jordan managed to pass Bell late on leaving him taking 13th place. 鈥淛ordan came up behind me towards the end with his headlights on and I thought he was leading so I let him past 鈥 there was some miscommunication with me and the team. It鈥檚 been a bit of a disappointing race day for us to be honest as it isn鈥檛 where we want to be right now.鈥 However Martyn and his team remain optimistic and are looking forward to the next BTCC meeting up at Knockhill, Scotland on September 3. | 
