Originally Posted by tommeke_B
Even at the age of 54 Snijers is not a hobby driver at all. He made his living with rally for many many years (and except for rallying he's still doing nothing else). He has two engineers, Fabio Lazzerini from R-Tec (this is a true suspension-specialist), and a prodrive-engineer. They have prodrive-support and their data is used for the development of the car. Patrick did several tests before the events, testing springs and dampers. With 38 years of experience on a high level I think his data has some value... He was helping Prodrive to develop their BMW M3 some 25 years ago by the way. ;) He has been driving almost everything there is to drive (from Kadett GT/E to S2000's and Mini WRC). Yes, he's an old guy already, and maybe he lost the last little bit what it takes to win on a high level. But he has been driving for so many years, and never stopped driving, he's really living for his sport and wants to be as fast as possible and he's only happy with a good result... To give you a small idea about how fast he still is. In 2009 he drove a rally with a Citroën C2 Max, just as Loix... Both were driving an equal car from the same team. The only difference was that Loix had a 3 hour test the day before (Snijers not). After the first loop of 3 stages Loix was 2s faster than Snijers. After the second loop, so after 6 stages, they were equal, within the same tenth of a second. Then the event was stopped because of a fatal accident...
So please learn your lesson before you call someone a "hobby-driver who doesn't know what he's doing."