Sam Hancock and Tim Harvey shared the pole positions at Snetterton yesterday (Saturday 12 July) in qualifying for rounds 11 and 12 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.
After a superbly competitive session, Hancock took pole for round 11, while Harvey will start round 12 from pole. In pro-am1 Nigel Rice headed the times, as Glynn Geddie topped the very competitive pro-am2 category.
With an excellent total of 18 cars on track, qualifying was very busy and several leading drivers missed out on good laps after catching slower cars. Among them was Harvey, who reckoned that he could have broken into the 1m7s bracket with a clear lap. However, topping the overall times was Hancock (Jota Sport) with a best lap of 1m08.126s. “I felt on it right from the out lap; the car was working really well,” said Hancock.
An impressive second fastest for round 11 was Charles Bateman (Team Parker Racing), with his best qualifying performance to date. “It said 8.1s on the dash and I thought we had pole,” said Bateman, who was just four-hundredths of a second away from pole. Right in contention in third, and running superbly well on his Carrera Cup debut, was teenager Jake Rosenzweig (Team Parker Racing) and his best lap was 15-thousandths off Bateman’s best.
As four tenths of a second covered the top six cars, Harvey (Red Line Racing) was fourth fastest for round 11. “We had a car to take pole, but I hit traffic,” said Harvey. “The car was perfect.” Fifth and sixth, but disappointed not to be higher up the order, were Tim Bridgman and Michael Caine (Team Parker Racing). “I’ve got a really consistent car; I just couldn’t get any more out of the tyres,” said Bridgman.
The order was shuffled for round 12 once each driver’s second best time was used, and the order will be Harvey on pole from Rosenzweig, Bridgman, Hancock, Caine and Bateman.
Rice topped the pro-am1 times for both races, despite a spin at the Esses. “Trying too hard early on,” he said as Jack Clarke (PCGB) and Tony Gilham (ReDesign Racing) led the pursuit. For round 12, Gilham will start ahead of Clarke after a strong qualifying performance. “I still feel we can go quicker,” said Gilham after another step forward.
In pro-am2, Geddie (Parr Motorsport) set a fierce pace, but was chased hard by team mate Steve Rance and Graeme Mundy (RSS Performance). “The car’s running better now,” said Geddie after electrical problems during testing. Rance, meanwhile, was pleased to break into the 1m9s bracket. “I’ve got some fresh tyres for tomorrow,” he said.
