Watts completes Croft double

Danny Watts completed a fabulous weekend when he won round ten of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Croft on Sunday. Watts scored his second win of the meeting and his fourth win of the season by leading from start to finish. “It’s been the perfect weekend,” said Watts. “The team gave me a fantastic car!”In front of a packed BTCC crowd basking in glorious sunshine, Watts (Team Irwin with Red Line) got the start he wanted to lead into the first corner and in a repeat of the earlier race, moved steadily away from the chasing pack.Once again, the battle for second place was all about title contenders Damien Faulkner (Team Parker with SAS) and Tim Harvey (Motorbase Performance). This time, however, Faulkner beat Harvey to the first corner and had to withstand pressure from his rival for many laps before edging away a little. Meanwhile, Harvey had to watch his mirrors for Richard Williams (IN2RACING), who was having a great race to match the pace of Faulkner and Harvey. “We didn’t have the ultimate pace to win this weekend,” said Faulkner. “But both Tim and I are clearly looking at the bigger picture,” he said. With Watts only contesting four race weekends this season, he is not concerned with the season-long championship contest.Harvey retained third as Williams shadowed him to the flag. “We were all so close together,” said Harvey as less than two seconds covered the three cars at the flag. Williams was justifiably pleased to have matched the pace of the established championship front-runners, after tackling two rounds of the Porsche Michelin Supercup in recent weeks. “Doing the Supercup rounds has really paid dividends and we’re there now!”A fine fifth place overall assured Phil Quaife (Motorbase Performance) of a pro-am double as he finished ahead of pro racers Mark Cole (Tech 9 Motorsport) and Jason Templeman (Team Parker with SAS). “I’m absolutely over the moon,” said a jubilant Quaife. “I can’t ask for much better than that.” When Cole ran wide at the Complex, Templeman was able to nip through to sixth after starting towards the tail of the grid. Once into his stride, Templeman made excellent progress to finish sixth after starting eleventh. Behind Edwards, Andy Purdie (Paragon) was ninth and third in pro-am, but had to withstand tremendous pressure from Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) over the closing laps. “I lost a lot of time when Jason Templeman came by,” said Purdie. “But I’m really happy to get another podium result.”Rice, meanwhile, also battled his way up the order after starting 15th. He almost got ahead of Purdie at the Hairpin, but was just three-tenths of a second behind as they raced for the finish line. “I wish it had been a 20-lap race today,” said Rice. Behind Rice, Pete Osbourne (Team O) had his best race to date in Carrera Cup and earned the ‘driver of the weekend’ award after making a significant step forwards.Provisional results – 15 laps:1 Danny Watts (Team Irwin with Red Line)          21m07.553s2 Damien Faulkner (Team Parker with SAS)          21m14.809s3 Tim Harvey (Motorbase Performance)                  21m15.977s4 Richard Williams (IN2RACING)                      21m17.010s5 Phil Quaife (Motorbase Performance)                  21m22.418s6 Jason Templeman (Team Parker with SAS)          21m23.975s7 Mark Cole (Tech 9 Motorsport)                       21m25.393s8 Sam Edwards (Team Parker Racing)                   21m34.143s9 Andy Purdie (Paragon)                                   21m37.320s10 Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing)                             21m37.653s


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