Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge

Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge

Silverstone 1st – 2nd October 2010

We entered the last round in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge which was supporting the Britcar 24 meeting at Silverstone – an event we didn’t want to miss. The weather forecast wasn’t great but we turned up on Thursday night hopeful that we would get some good racing in over the next couple of days. Friendly and familiar faces greeted us and it was good to be back with the Porsche Club after our rather longer than hoped for break.

Friday

Friday was wet, very wet. Those of you who followed our live twitter updates will know that it only got wetter! Both Paul and Tim had to qualify as they were sharing the car this weekend. Paul went out first and came back in reporting that the car felt really good and was pretty confident Tim could set a reasonable time – which he did.

It was decided that Tim would drive for the first race so out he went in wet and deteriorating conditions. He admitted that he wasn’t looking forward to the start but we were confident(!) he’d get away OK.

He had a good race in really heavy rain – so heavy they had to stop the session a few minutes early. After a brief spell in 3rd we finished in 4th, so made up a place on our qualifying position. The car was performing really well and the result saw us coming first in Class (2), those in front running class 1 997’s or  in the unrestricted Invitation class. Tim was delighted with the result and we were too and looked forward to tomorrows two races.

Saturday

It had stopped raining but it was still damp. We were only the second race of the day so the track hadn’t dried out as much as we thought it would – we had taken an optimistic view on set up. It was a roll of the dice that might pay off. It was Paul’s turn to drive today so he lined up in 4th place on the grid not knowing really what to expect from the track.

Unfortunately our gamble didn’t pay off, no dry line appeared and even toward the end of the session he was still a long way off the dry time we know he’s capable of. We finished 7th which was a disappointing result so we were determined to improve things in Race 3.

A dry track for race 3 and we felt that we had the car set up properly for the conditions. We hoped to be much nearer the front in this race but its always tough in a class 2 car racing against class 1 and the invitation class – but that’s club racing and we’ve always enjoyed the challenge. Paul got away well after some close racing with drivers in superior machinery he was rewarded with a 3rd overall and a 1st in class – which was an outstanding result.

Video footage should be available shortly and I’ll post it as soon as its ready.

It was a happy team that packed the car away. We decided to visit the pits to catch up with Andy (who had volunteered at short notice to engineer for a team this weekend in the Britcar 24hr race) and some old friends who were helping out with various teams. Walking around the pits and watching the cars go around at night brings it home just how hard it must be to run a car for 24 hours, but strangely its whetted our appetite. Perhaps Dorset Sports Cars could put a car out in a 24 hour race – watch this space!