Westbrook takes Knockhill double
Richard Westbrook completed a perfect weekend with victory in round 16 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Knockhill on Sunday.Just as he had in dry conditions on Saturday, Westbrook won Sunday’s wet race from the front to maintain his unbeaten record at the Scottish track. However, a big mid-race challenge from Gordon Shedden kept Westbrook on his toes.On a horribly wet track, Westbrook (Red Line Racing) led the pack into the first corner from Damien Faulkner (Team Parker Racing), but Faulkner soon knew that he was struggling. In the run up to the race, conditions looked to be improving and the team elected to send Faulkner and his team mate Jason Templeman into the race on used wet tyres. As the rain increased again, that proved to be the wrong choice and both drivers struggled as the race developed.Into the hairpin at the end of the first lap, Shedden dived ahead of Faulkner to take second and set off in pursuit of Westbrook. Meanwhile, Faulkner started to fall back into the clutches of Tim Harvey (Team RPM) and on lap eight Harvey moved through to third at the hairpin.While Shedden chipped away at Westbrook’s lead, Harvey closed on both of them. By lap 13, Shedden was right on Westbrook’s tail, but Westbrook was able to respond and build his lead out to a second and a half once more. Shortly after, Shedden was caught behind a slower car at the chicane and that was all the chance that Harvey needed to move in. On the penultimate lap, Harvey dived ahead on the run out of Clark, only for Shedden to get the place back on the exit of the hairpin. On the final lap, they ran side-by-side into the hairpin, but Shedden got the verdict by less than a length after a fine race.“I’m just enjoying racing again. Today, I just went off like a rabbit from the start, but mid-race Gordon was very quick. Then I could pull away again,” said a delighted Westbrook. Shedden, too, was elated with his race. “Fantastic! That’s the first time in the car in the wet. Thanks to Porsche Cars GB and Autosport for giving me the chance to compete this weekend.”Third place, and a series of race fastest laps, showed that Harvey had winning pace. “I had a good car and it was nice to be going forward. But I didn’t know it was the last lap as I couldn’t see the board.” Faulkner struggled home fourth, scoring important championship points but disappointed not to have challenged for victory. Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) had Faulkner in his sights, as he took fifth from Templeman and Stephen Shanly (Red Line Racing). Meanwhile David Ashburn (Trackspeed) collected the driver of the day award in eighth after his rival from Saturday, Steve Clark (Team RPM) pitted for attention to a loose windscreen wiper. Provisional results (20 laps):1 Richard Westbrook (Red Line Racing) 19m58.206s2 Gordon Shedden (Porsche Cars Team Autosport) 20m04.068s3 Tim Harvey (Team RPM) 20m04.244s4 Damien Faulkner (Team Parker Racing) 20m18.609s5 Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) 20m21.602s 6 Jason Templeman (Team Parker Racing) 20m25.131s7 Stephen Shanly (Red Line Racing) 20m31.280s8 David Ashburn (Trackspeed) 20m09.809s9 Jim Geddie (Apex Tubular) 19 laps10 Steve Clark (Team RPM) 18 laps