Silverstone Hosts First One-Hour Race for 2006 Open

The Porsche Open series has its first one-hour race of the season on Saturday afternoon, May 13th, at Silverstone, giving the runners a chance to stretch the legs of their varied machinery over the circuit's National layout. The series regulars also get the opportunity to either drive the whole race themselves (with a compulsory pit stop) or bring in a second driver for the occasion.

Pete Morris dominated at Castle Combe in the previous two rounds, and shares his Class Two GT3 Cup car with the rapid Henry Firman. The only driver to beat Morris so far this season has been Rupert Lewin, who won the season opener in his mighty 911 GT2R, but retired with engine damage in round two. If his car is back on song then the powerful Class One machine will be hard to beat.

Gerry Harrison's 911 GT3 RS has been a consistent top three finisher in Class One, and could be on for a good overall finish at Silverstone, while the chase of Morris in Class Two was headed at Castle Combe two weeks ago by Mark Stephenson, Steve Russell (sharing his GT3 Cup with Peter Lavender this weekend) and rookie Malcolm Spendlove, who took a fifth place at Combe in just his third race.

Mike Johnson and his 911SC have dominated Class Three, heading the class in all four rounds to date, with Peter Garrod twice class runner-up last time out and keen to end Johnson's domination.

Class Four has seen some tightly fought battles with Charles Winterhalder coming out on top three times out of four. The closely matched 944s of this class should continue their battles during the hour of action at Silverstone.

Porsche Open qualifying is at 09.25 with a 35-minute session to give sufficient track time for drivers sharing cars to both get on track. The one-hour race is scheduled for 16.10 on Saturday afternoon.