Snetterton 300 Circuit 750 Motor Club Roadsports Championship 2026 – 30th August
Luke Beardmore Racing will be competing in the Snetterton 300 Circuit 750 Motor Club Roadsports Championship 2026, on 30 August 2026, driving a Mazda RX-8 in Class C.
Snetterton Race Report – Round 5
30th August 2026
Sorry for the late report — I’ve been absolutely flat out with work and everything else!
Round 5 of the Roadsports Championship arrived, and this one was a special one for me. Snetterton is my local track and, more importantly, it’s the venue where I scored my first ever motorsport podium.
Roadsports had so many entries for this round that the event had to be split into two races, with Classes A and C running a 45-minute race, and Classes B and D having a separate race due to the maximum number of cars allowed on track being exceeded.
Driving to the circuit from North Essex, it was absolutely chucking it down with rain. Not exactly what I wanted to see, especially with my tyres having already completed four rounds and being pretty low on tread by this point!
Qualifying – Damp to Drying
Qualifying arrived and a rather strange decision had been made.
Despite our race being run alongside the Class A cars, they had been sent out with Classes B and D for their qualifying session earlier in the day. Their session was therefore completely wet, whereas ours was damp and drying.
The reason I mention this is because it meant the cars that would eventually share the race had qualified in completely different conditions. As a result, the grid wasn’t really representative of the pace of the cars.
It meant most of us in Class C ended up qualifying ahead of much faster Class A cars simply because we had the drying track.
Instead, we shared our qualifying session with the Clio Cup guys.
We headed out onto a wet/damp track that was drying very quickly, so getting a lap in towards the end of the session was going to be vital. The first couple of laps were very slippery, but towards the end it was obvious that a fully dry line was appearing and we’d be able to start setting some quick times.
Sharing the track with the Clios was interesting. They are just as quick as us in a straight line, but they don’t quite have the same pace through the corners, simply because we run some aero and they don’t.
Towards the end of the session, I gave myself what I thought would be a big enough gap to the cars ahead. Unfortunately, it wasn’t!
I rapidly caught the Clios in front, who understandably didn’t want to concede the track because they were fighting in their own championship and wanted to get their laps in too.
I backed off again to try for one more flyer, but timed it completely wrong and got the chequered flag flat out!
Despite that, I still managed P4 in class, so I was pretty happy with that.
Race – PM
We were the first race out after lunch, and because of the qualifying setup it meant we’d qualified ahead of every Class A car — obviously not on merit!
We knew the first couple of laps could be carnage as the Class A cars worked their way through the field.
I completely understand why they would be eager to get past us. As Class C cars, we’re around 12–15 seconds a lap slower than the Class A front-runners, so if they got stuck behind us for a full lap, it could seriously compromise their race.
So, the lights go out and we head into Turn 1.
Heading down towards the hairpin at Montreal, there are five of us all battling for position while simultaneously trying to avoid the Class A cars coming through.
Everyone keeps it clean up front and the order remains unchanged — P1 through P5.
Unfortunately, behind us two cars have a big accident coming out of Riches, and the Safety Car is deployed.
Following the Safety Car around, we come past Riches and can see both cars that have gone off now sitting out in the farmer’s field.
Thankfully, no injuries.
For the first 15 minutes of the race we followed the Safety Car before the decision was eventually made to red flag the session and restart.
The Restart
We lined up P4 in class, but now on the right side of the grid thanks to a couple of Class A cars being ahead of us.
This time I got a good run on the Clio ahead and managed to take P3 into the braking zone.
The Clio wasn’t giving it up though!
On the run out of Palmer and into Agostini, he managed to retake P3 from us, dropping us back down to P4.
From there, we settled into a good battle with the Clio. He couldn’t pull a gap from us, and we were pretty evenly matched.
Snetterton doesn’t massively suit our car, and we’re still experiencing a very slight straight-line deficit compared with where we should be. We seemed to have largely solved this at Anglesey, but looking at the data after the race, there is still something going on there.
The team have been fantastic throughout the season, so I’m confident they’ll do everything they can to get to the bottom of it.
Then came our mandatory pit stop.
We came back out in P4, now chasing the BMW rather than the Clio.
Over the first couple of laps we slowly started closing the gap to the car ahead. However, it soon became apparent that our pace was very similar, with only a couple of tenths a lap being gained.
With around 4–5 seconds to close, I decided there wasn’t enough in it to force the issue and brought the car home.
P4 – Another Solid Result
Am I happy with P4?
Yes. Absolutely.
It’s another strong result for myself and the entire team, especially considering the conditions, the qualifying situation and the challenges we had during the race.
A massive thank you as always to everyone involved with the car and the team. We keep learning, keep improving and keep pushing.
Next up is Thruxton.
I might have to dust off Assetto Corsa and learn the layout! 😂
Bring on Round 6!
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