Richard Westbrook made it six wins from six rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Brands Hatch yesterday. With another masterful display, Westbrook (Red Line Racing) saw off the early challenge of Damien Faulkner (Team Parker Racing) to extend his championship lead to 22 points. Meanwhile, Tim Harvey was dealt another blow when he was forced to retire with a detached water pipe.For Harvey, even being on the grid was a massive achievement. His car has been badly damaged in Saturday’s accident, but the crew at Team RPM worked late into the night to repair the damage, using parts taken from Alex Mortimer’s car and a loaned engine. Assistance from other teams, notably Motorbase Performance, helped get the car straightened out. “We couldn’t have done it without the help of the other teams,” said team boss Robin Mortimer on Sunday morning.While Westbrook beat Faulkner to the first corner, Harvey pulled off an amazing start from eleventh on the grid to grab fourth at the first corner and then jumped ahead of Jason Templeman (Team Parker Racing) before the end of the opening lap. “I couldn’t hang about; I just had to go for it on the first lap,” admitted Tim.Up front, Westbrook pulled out a lead of a couple of seconds and then controlled the race as Faulkner was not able to mount a challenge. “The main focus was to get a good start,” said Westbrook. “After that, the race was relatively simple.”Sadly, Harvey’s amazing opening was not destined to bring a reward as he was forced into the pits after nine laps. That put Templeman back into third place. Into fine fourth and fifth places went the Motorbase Performance pair of Andy Britnell and Sam Edwards, both putting in excellent drives. “It’s good to come back into the championship and get two top six places,” said Britnell. Edwards, too, had impressed with his pace and consistency on his championship debut.Another tremendous battle raged for sixth as Jason Young and Stephen Shanly from Red Line Racing battled with the flying Susie Stoddart (Porsche Cars with Team Autosport). Shanly eventually took the place, but had to fend off Stoddart in the closing stages.Provisional results (22 laps)
1 Richard Westbrook (Red Line Racing) 17m53.271s2 Damien Faulkner (Team Parker Racing) 17m56.133s3 Jason Templeman (Team Parker Racing) 18m03.034s4 Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance) 18m12.260s5 Sam Edwards (Motorbase Performance) 18m17l603s6 Stephen Shanly (Red Line Racing) 18m23.470s7 Susie Stoddart (Porsche Cars/Autosport) 18m23.476s8 Jason Young (Red Line Racing) 18m26.804s9 Steve Clark (Team RPM) 18m28.661s10 Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) 18m30.454s