Porsche Carrera Cup Heads for Thruxton
The fastest circuit on the calendar will be the setting for rounds seven and eight of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB over the weekend of 3/4 June.
Having broken lap records already this season, the superb new Type 997 911 GT3 Cup cars next line up at the Thruxton circuit, near Andover in Hampshire, and average circuit speeds are likely to be well in excess of 110mph if conditions are good during the British Touring Car Championship meeting.
Also new for 2006 is the Pro-Am category, aimed at giving the non-professional racers their own points and prize money rewards to chase. The move has proved very popular indeed, and a host of quick racers will be contesting this category within the overall race results.
Having missed the last two weekends of Carrera Cup action while taking a grip on the points’ table in the Porsche Michelin Supercup, Richard Westbrook (Ipswich) will return to the Carrera Cup to race the Team Irwin with Red Line Racing entry. Danny Watts (Buckingham) took the car to a double win last time out at Oulton Park in Cheshire, but now Westbrook is back and determined to add to the brace of wins he took when the season opened at Brands Hatch in April. Westbrook will race at Thruxton in between Porsche Supercup races at the Monaco and Silverstone GPs.
While Westbrook will not be thinking about championship points, that is absolutely the case for key title contenders Tim Harvey (Witney, Oxon), driving for Kent-based Motorbase Performance, and reigning champion Damien Faulkner (Co Donegal, Eire), who drives for Team SAS. Heading to Thruxton, Harvey leads by just two points and this is a contest that is set to run and run over the remaining 14 races of the 2006 season.
A fine third place in the early championship standings is Richard Williams (London) after a consistently strong start to the season. Williams is now focused on matching the pace of Harvey and Faulkner and could take another step closer at Thruxton. Fellow IN2RACING drivers Mike Richards and Paul Hogarth from Cheshire are both pretty short on Thruxton experience, but will be chasing Williams in the three-strong Stratford upon Avon-based team.
Jason Templeman (Nottingham) has had a trying start to his season and will be keen to return to the podium at Thruxton, while Michael Caine (Newmarket) has suffered even more ill fortune, but clearly has the pace to turn his season around. Bad luck has also dogged local driver Mark Cole (Inkpen), but Thruxton is just the place for Cole to remind everyone of his front-running pace and is the home track for the Berkshire racer.
The Pro-Am category, introduced at the start of the season, has been a great success, with strong competition throughout. Currently, Phil Quaife (Tonbridge) is top dog and has built a very handy 24-point lead following a run of four wins in a row. However, it is still early days and the opposition is determined to prevent Quaife dominating the category. Sam Edwards (Aylesbury) chased very hard at Oulton Park, while Nigel Rice (Beverley, East Yorkshire) and Jason Young (Oakham, Leicstershire) have both won the Pro-Am category for Red Line Racing.
Factory Porsche racing driver Sascha Maassen will join the Carrera Cup GB at Thruxton, his first visit to the circuit. He will drive the car entered by Porsche Cars GB in partnership with Vertu, the world���s first and only manufacturer of luxury handcrafted mobile phones.