The Gloucestershire team, which races with backing from SD teams, was a contender at the sharp end in all three races, with drivers Tom Mills and Jarrod Waberski sharing out a total of three podium appearances across the three races between them.
For 16-year-old Mills and South African Waberski, who was a late addition to the KMR line-up, it marked an impressive start to the new for 2022 GB4 Championship, and gives the team a solid foundation from which to build over the coming races.
Both cars were quick from the start of the event, with Waberski and Mills finishing second and third on the combined testing results, and qualifying on Saturday morning resulted in another strong performance with Waberski setting the third-fastest time and Mills lining up fifth for the opening race.
The qualifying positions were reversed in the inaugural encounter, as Mills delivered what was to become a trademark rocket start as he powered from fifth to second on the first lap. Though he was demoted back to third on the second lap, Mills claimed an impressive podium on his maiden GB4 appearance. Waberski meanwhile claimed fifth, but very nearly took fourth on the run to the line, finishing just a tenth of a second behind former British F3 racer Max Marzorati.
From third and fourth on the race two grid, Waberski and Mills went wheel to wheel on the opening lap, but showed great maturity to avoid any contact. Mills passed his team-mate for third at turn three and then slipped up the inside of race-one winner Nikolas Taylor moments later to take second. When Taylor spun a couple of corners later, Waberski was promoted to the podium positions too, which he held for the remainder of the race to make it two KMR cars in the top three.
Mills applied race-long pressure to eventual winner Alex Walker, and got within a few tenths of his former Formula Ford teammate, but ultimately opted for a sensible second place, finishing just a second behind the Elite Motorsport driver. Waberski completed an excellent contest for the team by claiming a podium in just his second race outside of his homeland, this time fending off Marzorati for third place by the same 0.1 second margin!
Mills and Waberski started from sixth and eighth positions respectively for the final reversed-grid race. Despite some chaos around them, the pair kept their noses clean and brought their immaculately presented cars home without a scratch, in fourth and fifth.
The excellent results across the weekend on the team’s first appearance in slicks and wings racing means the squad has an 11-point lead at the top of the Teams’ Championship heading toward round two at Oulton Park in a couple of weeks.
Team Owner Kevin Mills said: “If you’d said to me at the beginning of the winter that we’d be top of the standings I wouldn’t have believed you. This is all new to the team, we’ve not run with slicks and wings before, so to take three podium finishes… I’d have bitten your hand off at the start of the weekend.
“I’m really pleased but not surprised as we’ve put a lot of work into it. But to have moved up and proven we’re as competitive as everyone else has been really important for us this weekend.
“For Tom to get second and third and Jarrod getting a third on his first weekend was incredible. Jarrod’s only just started driving these cars – Thursday morning was the first time he’d sat in one! He’d never been to Snetterton, and I think only more can come, he can go even faster.
“The other teams have had experience running on these tyres and running similar cars. For us, we’ve done none of that and to get those results in our first weekend is a dream, and we’ll only get better after this.”
Tom Mills said: “I’m really happy with the weekend, two podiums and a P4 means I have one of the best average results of anyone so I’m really happy. The team did great as well and it was great to have both of us on the podium in race two, it shows we are not just a little team; we can fight with the likes of Fortec and the other guys, which is what we wanted to do.
“I’m really excited for Oulton Park now, I’ve not been there in the GB4 car but I drove it in Formula Ford. It’s a cracking circuit so I’m really looking forward to attacking corners like Druids in one of these things! We’ve learned so much this weekend, how to treat tyres, and just the general experience of racing with these cars. So I think we might be even stronger at Oulton.”
Jarrod Waberski said: It’s been a great weekend. Quali was excellent, to get a P3 in my first session in the UK. I made a little mistake in race one but we learned from it and had a podium in race two. Then we had a decent race in the reverse grid to make up a few places. So overall, for my first time here with no pre-season testing, I’m very chuffed with everything.
“I can’t thank the team enough, the late nights and hard work, they’ve done everything they can to help me get up to speed quickly so a massive thank you to them.”
The next round of the GB4 Championship takes place at Oulton Park, running in support of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship over Easter weekend, April 15-18. The full results from Snetterton’s opening round can be viewed here.
