Tim Harvey got his season off to a perfect start by completing a weekend double with victory in round two of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Brands Hatch yesterday (Sunday 1 April). Having dominated the opening round on Saturday, Harvey (Red Line Racing) won again with another faultless performance. However, the pack was far closer this time and after 34 laps, Harvey’s winning margin was less than two and a half seconds. “They were a lot closer than yesterday and I kept up a better pace,” said Harvey. “This is a perfect start to the championship and Red Line Racing has done a fantastic job with the car.” For their weekend’s success, the Red Line squad was confirmed as RAC ‘team of the weekend’.Behind Harvey, four cars ran the whole race in very close formation, with excellent starts from Michael Caine (Team Parker Racing) and Jon Barnes (Porsche Motorsport) catapulting them ahead of James Sutton (Red Line Racing) on the rush to the first corner. With Steven Kane (Motorbase Performance) going with them, this quartet was never more than a few yards apart and after 34 laps they were covered by less than a second. “We came here knowing we’d got a little bit to find,” said Caine. “So two podiums is okay, but Tim has been in a class of his own round here and we’ve got to catch him.”Barnes was elated to clinch third, having chased Caine every inch of the race. “I got an absolute rocket start and I’m ecstatic to finish third. You have to concentrate so hard at every corner.” Sutton was left to rue losing two places at the start, but ran right with Caine and Barnes. “It’s been a good way to start in Carrera Cup,” said Sutton. Kane chased them throughout and in the early laps Sam Hancock (Motorbase Performance) went after the quartet, before dropping back a little in sixth.Seventh place and the lead of the pro-am category provided plenty of interest as James Pickford (QME Sport) headed pro-am contenders Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) and Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance). Rice was soon attacking Pickford and launched a bold attack around the outside at Paddock Hill Bend. The cars ran side-by-side all the way to Druids, but Rice ran wide on the exit of Druids and Britnell dived through. A couple of laps later Britnell worked ahead of the struggling Pickford into Paddock and Rice quickly followed through.Now it was Britnell against Rice to the flag and Britnell hung on tenaciously, despite constant challenges from Rice. “That was good fun,” said Britnell. “Nigel put up a good fight and it’s nice to win on home ground with a lot of guests here.” Rice completed a fine weekend with second in pro-am. “Pickford cost me the win, but I can’t really hold that against him.” Rice was also named RAC ‘driver of the weekend’ for his efforts as Charles Bateman (Team Parker Racing) again completed the pro-am podium.Porsche Carrera Cup GB resultsDate: Sunday 1 April 2007
Venue: Brands Hatch Indy circuit
Event: Results, round 2, 34 laps
1 Tim Harvey Pro Red Line Racing 27m35.040s2 Michael Caine Pro Team Parker Racing 27m37.400s3 Jon Barnes - Porsche Motorsport 27m37.686s4 James Sutton Pro Red Line Racing 27m38.009s5 Steven Kane Pro Motorbase Performance 27m38.367s6 Sam Hancock Pro Motorbase Performance 27m46.609s7 Andy Britnell Pro-am Motorbase Performance 27m57.720s8 Nigel Rice Pro-am Red Line Racing 27m58.258s9 James Pickford Pro QME Sport 28m04.182s10 Charles Bateman Pro-am Team Parker Racing 28m12.923s11 Pete Osborne Pro-am Team O 28m19.826s12 Rob Collard Pro Team Parker Racing 33 lapsDNF David Ashburn Pro-am Trackspeed Puncture
