A 12-hour endurance race for Mazda MX5's closed the motor racing season at Snetterton on Saturday with victory going to the Paul Sheard Autos team by seven laps of the 300 layout.

Sheard was assisted by Joachim Ritter, Clint Bardwell and Chrissy Palmer who took the lead before the two hour mark and never looked like relinquishing it. At half distance the MX5 derived space framed MX 150R's of Jonathan Blake and Alec Livelesley got to within a lap of the leaders but when Blake's engine blew up and the second car of Livelesley need the exhaust off Blake's car their challenge was over.

In the final hour interest was focused on the battle for second place. Mark Ticehurst had led the early laps for the Mazda Motors team and when he resumed he hauled the car up to third place.

Experienced racer Mark Hales continued the good work before handing over to Dan Trent, in only his second race, to complete the event. With 30 minutes remaining a fortunate safety car deployment, for a car which had caught fire, brought him onto the tail of Brian Chandler and shortly after Trent sped past to claim a splendid second place.

Mazda 12-hour Endurance Race: 1 Paul Sheard Autos (Paul Sheard, Joachim Ritter, Clint Bardwell, Chrissy Palmer) 284 laps; 2 Mazda Motors UK (Dan Trent, Jade Elizabeth Paveley, Mark Ticehurst, Mark Hales, Kyle Fortune, Kevin Haggarthy) 277; 3 BS Motorsport (Ben Short, Alyn Robson, Brian Chandler) 277.