Porsche Carrera Cup GB Preview
This season’s Porsche Carrera Cup is shaping up very nicely after an intriguing winter. Here is a guide to the runners and riders of 2011.
Defending champion Tim Harvey is the man to beat and is looking for his third Carrera Cup GB title, he would be the first driver to win it three times in the history of the championship. However, in order to do that he has to successfully defend the title something he has not done before, having finished third the last time he had the number one on the door, in 2009. Harvey has moved from Redline Racing to Motorbase Performance, the team which were very much in the ascendancy at the end of last season. Harvey described the move as like “coming home” but it’ll be interesting to see if he feels the same come the end of the season. It will very much depend on how he gets on with his main championship rival from last season, now his team mate, Michael Caine. Caine is definitely the nearly man of the championship, having finished runner up twice but has never managed to go one better. He has the hunger and desire for it of that there is no doubt but whether he can consistently outperform Harvey now they are team mates is highly questionable. However, Caine drove for the team last season and will know how to get the best out of his working relationships to push the team forward should they need to find some pace at a given weekend. This familiarity could give him a slight advantage at the beginning of the season and if this can be maximised it is the only conceivable way that he can outdo his more experienced team mate.
Ironically it has been Harvey’s team of last season Redline Racing that have led the way during the winter. They have recruited 2007 champion James Sutton to partner last year’s scholarship winner Michael Meadows who goes into his second season in the championship. Sutton and Redline are always a good combination having emerged victorious in the series in 2007 and finished second in 2009 just four points behind eventual winner Tim Bridgman despite not contesting the opening two races of the season. The advantage that Sutton has is that he is the only man in the field with a season’s experience of the new 911 GT3 Cup car having raced it last year when he competed in the Italian Carrera Cup. He probably poses the biggest threat to Harvey’s crown but can expect to be pushed hard by team mate Meadows who seems to be gaining in confidence the more time he spends behind the wheel of a Porsche. He has the ability to edge out Sutton in terms of one lap pace but he will need to work on his race craft if he is to get the better of the former champion during a race. Redline’s third driver in the pro category is Benji Hetherington who finished third in the Ginetta G50 Supercup last season and won the scholarship from Porsche over the winter which has enabled him to enter the series. He missed media day due to mumps and tonsillitis which has hampered his build up to the season slightly but expect him to quickly be on the pace of the front running cars.
The third team to run pro drivers this season are Team Parker Racing who have opted for a blend of youth and experience. Stephen Jelley continues with the team which helped him to third place in the championship standings in 2010. Although he hasn’t done as much testing as the rest of the field he should in theory be able to continue where he left off at the end of last season. He hasn’t got to learn how to get the best out of the Porsche like he did last season when he had switched straight from the Touring Cars, because while it is a new model of car most drivers aren’t reporting a great deal of difference in handling and behaviour between it and last season’s equipment. Alongside Jelley will be two newcomers to the series Sam Tordoff and Richard Plant. Tordoff raced in the Renault Clio Cup last season finishing third in the standings before earning a one off drive in the British Touring Cars behind the wheel of a Triple Eight run Vauxhall Vectra. He has shown good pace over winter testing and on that evidence looks capable of living with the likes of Harvey, Sutton and Caine. Plant is settling back into competitive motorsport having spent last season on the sidelines due to an illness in his family. Before this, in 2009, he enjoyed the most successful campaign of his short career by winning the Formula Palmer Audi Championship title. He like Tordoff hasn’t been far off the pace but he seems likely to be at his most competitive in the second half of the season once he’s shaken off the rustiness that may hinder him slightly, particularly in the races, in the early stages of the season.
In the pro-am 1 category things should be equally as tight. Last season’s champion Ollie Jackson has moved on to pastures new in the form of the British GT Championship. This leaves last season’s runner up in the category, Jonas Gelzinis as the pre-season favourite. Indeed noises have been made throughout the paddock over the winter in surprise that the Lithuanian ace hasn’t opted to move up to the pro category as no one doubts that he has the ability to take on the big names in the championship. This doesn’t mean Gelzinis will have it easy in pro-am 1 though. Omani racer Ahmad Al Harthy topped the category in both sessions at Snetterton during the championship’s test and media day and the Redline Racing driver seems more excited and determined than ever about the season ahead. It could well be a season long battle between the pair.
However a third candidate for the pro-am 1 title is Celtic Speed’s Rory Butcher. The former Formula Ford champion is fancied by many as one to watch this season having impressed in cameo appearances in the championship before. Now that he is doing a full campaign with one of the more experienced teams on the grid, it is expected to be a fruitful combination.
Elsewhere in the category, Team Parker Racing have signed a pair of drivers with previous experience of the championship: Derek Pierce and Alex Martin. Pierce drove in all but one of the race meetings for the JHR team in 2009 while Martin continues with the team he switched to half way through last season. These two will be hoping for consistent top six finishes in pro-am1 and looking to take advantage of any incidents between the front runners to grab podiums when they are there for the taking.
Redline will once again have two cars in the pro-am1 section with Andrew Shelley returning to the team to partner the aforementioned Al Harthy. Shelley will be looking to score outright points on a more regular basis to aid his progress in pro-am1.
Motorbase will also run two cars in pro-am1 with George Richardson stepping up from pro-am 2 and Swiss racer Daniele Perfetti a former competitor in the Italian Porsche Carrera Cup joining the team. Richardson is hoping for a solid season in the category but admits it will be tough to keep up with the top guys in class. He knows that this year is all about cementing his reputation in the championship and the way to achieve this is by claiming consistent results in the top half of pro-am 1.
The final pro-am1 entry is from Parr Motorsport for Irishman Michael Leonard. Leonard will run at five of the rounds this season and when he does he will look to be at the sharp end of the category. It remains to be seen if Parr will give the drive to somebody else at the rounds Leonard does not contest.
The entry list for pro-am2 is fairly short but it could prove to be the most open of them all. The champion of the last two years Glenn McMenamin won’t return to defend his title. This means that the runner up from last year, Celtic Speed’s George Brewster, has to be the slight favourite for the category especially if he can take the form he showed at media day into the new season. During the media day he was lapping Snetterton at the same sort of pace as the mid pro-am1 runners which was very impressive. Brewster will not have it easy though.
Steve Parish of Motorbase has shown good form in the winter and was a serious contender in the category last season up until he suffered a big crash at Oulton Park in which he broke his collarbone. This forced him to miss several rounds. It hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm and at the Media day he seemed confident of winning pro-am2. Only time will tell if this confidence is misplaced or not.
An outsider but seemingly a contender from the word go has been former GT Cup racer Keith Webster. The Hampshire based businessman was one of the quickest runners in Pro-am2 at Snetterton and will benefit from being in the Redline Racing team who have already assigned James Sutton the role of mentoring the 44 year old. If Webster can be consistent as well as quick there is no reason why he can’t make it a three way tussle for pro-am2 glory.
Outside of the pace setters, Brewster’s team mate and team Principal Tommy Dreelan will hope to be in the thick of the pro-am2 action having opted to step down a category for 2011.
Also stepping down a class is Tautvydas Barstys of Juta Racing. The Lithuanian businessman will be looking for a more competitive showing and choosing to contest pro-am2 might just allow him to do this.
Parr Motorsport’s only driver signed up for all the rounds this season is Richard Denny. The Australian goes into his second season in the championship having described last season as a “baptism of fire.” He will want to forget the two point penalty he incurred at Brands Hatch that cancelled out his only score of the year at Knockhill and saw him finish the season on minus one point. The signs from winter testing are that Denny is more at home in the car this year and he should be in for a more competitive showing in 2011.
Last but not least is sports car racer and retired dentist John Taylor who will race for Team Parker Racing. Taylor claims that his main objective throughout the year is “to have fun,” but this doesn’t mean he won’t be going out there to achieve impressive results. He has experience of racing Porsches in other championships and he could well be a dark horse in pro-am2, expect his performances to improve as the season goes on.
At the time of writing there was still time for drivers to switch categories or for teams to announce new drivers, so come the first race on Saturday don’t be surprised to see one or two other guys on the grid who aren’t mentioned above. The one rumour persistently flying around the paddock is that Euan Hankey is planning to return but not for Team Parker Racing, the squad that powered him to fourth last year but with Juta Racing, only time will tell if this is true or not. Whatever developments unfold in the few remaining days before the first round at Brands Hatch, one thing is for certain, it should be an absolutely fantastic season.
Thomas Surgay
