Watts takes Carrera Cup double

Danny Watts completed a perfect weekend by winning round 12 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Donington Park yesterday. Once again Watts was able to break clear as title contenders Tim Harvey and Damien Faulkner battled for second place, while Alex Mortimer claimed pro-am spoils after an excellent drive.There was drama on the run to the first corner as the car of Sam Edwards (Team Parker Racing) was pitched into the air after contact with the car of Phil Quaife (Motorbase Performance). Both cars were forced out and with Quaife’s car stranded in the gravel at Redgate, the safety car was deployed while it was moved.From the green flag, Watts (Team IRWIN with Red Line) again took control and Harvey (Motorbase Performance) moved ahead of Faulkner (Team Parker with SAS) into the Old Hairpin. The cars touched, and each driver had their own view of the incident. “Tim pushed me out of the way. It just messed up the whole race,” said Faulkner. “He went very defensive down the Craner Curves and then moved across,” countered Harvey. The outcome was that Harvey ran second to the flag, with Faulkner seldom more than half a second behind. Up front, Watts reeled off the laps to score his sixth win on the trot. “That was pretty straightforward. The circuit was very slippery and dirty and I had to adapt to that,” said Watts. “I was determined to win this weekend!”Behind Harvey and Faulkner, Jason Templeman (Team Parker with SAS) had a relatively lonely but strong run to fourth, staying clear of Mortimer (Team RPM) who took a fine fifth overall and won the pro-am category by a convincing margin. “I’d have liked to have a race with Phil Quaife,” said Mortimer. “But it was just brilliant for the team to come back to Carrera Cup with this result,” he said.For many laps, Richard Williams (IN2RACING) chased Mortimer, but increasingly he hit tyre problems and fell back. First to go ahead was Michael Caine (Motorbase Performance) who came through strongly from well down the grid. His fighting recovery drive earned Caine the driver of the weekend award. Then, on the final lap, Mike Richards (IN2RACING) was able to move into seventh and second in pro-am as the struggling Williams gave his team mate room into the chicane. “That was worth missing my flight for,” said Richards of his result in a race delayed by incidents in earlier races.Jason Young (Red Line Racing) had been right with Richards and Williams into the final corner but spun on the exit of the chicane as he tried to dive ahead of Williams. Young still recovered for third in pro-am before David Ashburn (Trackspeed) and Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) arrived. Rice had been badly delayed at the first corner when clipped into a spin by the spinning Quaife.The results of this race remain provisional following a protest by Damien Faulkner over the incident with Tim Harvey, which will be heard during the next race weekend at Snetterton on 12/13 August.Provisional results (23 laps):1 Danny Watts (Team IRWIN with Red Line)          30m05.516s2 Tim Harvey (Motorbase Performance)                  30m08.312s3 Damien Faulkner (Team Parker with SAS)          30m08.721s4 Jason Templeman (Team Parker with SAS)          30m16.087s5 Alex Mortimer (Team RPM)                      30m20.552s6 Michael Caine (Motorbase Performance)          30m22.489s7 Mike Richards (IN2RACING)                      30m27.129s8 Richard Williams (IN2RACING)                      30m27.709s9 Jason Young (Red Line Racing)                      30m35.009s10 David Ashburn (Trackspeed)                     30m41.460s


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