Lea Wood pleased with progress after “character building” Snetterton weekend

A number of on-track incidents hindered Lea Wood’s Snetterton progress, despite a season-best qualifying performance.

Coming off an extensive amount of work over the six-week break, Wood put in an impressive 11th fastest lap in free practice, before taking his Toyota Avensis to 18th in qualifying, beating his previous best of 23rd in 2014.

Unfortunately for the JWT Performance team, the first race saw Wood having to avoid collision by taking to the grass, dropping down the order and having to settle for 21st at the finish line. The second race was equally as frustrating for Wood, making contact at the start while trying to avoid Alain Menu’s spinning VW and having his own moment later in the race, finishing in 19th.

After reverting back to his original setup Wood was hoping to make up for lost ground in the final race of the day, moving up to 16th at the start only to find himself dropping to the back after being spun around. Another recovery drive from the Hereford racer took him back to 19th at the chequered flag.

“The best way to describe our weekend is ‘character building’,” said Wood. “We went to Snetterton hoping to make good on the work we’d put in during the summer break and, in terms of outright pace, we achieved that goal.

“Unfortunately several incidents in the races meant we couldn’t score the results our performance warranted. The pack was more frantic than usual this weekend – it’s as if some of the guys are trying to prove a point after six weeks away from racing. So of course we’re frustrated to be coming away with very little having put so much in.

“Nevertheless, we can be pleased with the progress we showed at Snetterton. We’ve had our best qualifying of the year and when I ran in clean air the pace was excellent, so we’re definitely heading in the right direction. Next time out at Knockhill we’ll look to maintain that speed while staying away from trouble in the races.”