Steven Kane won round nine of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Oulton Park today (Saturday 23 June) in a race where the top four drivers were covered by less than two and a half seconds after 25 minutes of racing.Kane had to race hard for lap after lap as Michael Caine, James Sutton and Tim Harvey chased relentlessly. Meanwhile, Andy Britnell scored a fine pro-am victory after fending off a stern challenge from Charles Bateman.On a dry track, Kane (Motorbase Performance) and Caine (Team Parker Racing) went side by side into the first corner and with Kane on the inside, he was just able to edge ahead. With Sutton and Harvey slotting into third and fourth places for Red Line Racing, the leading quartet made a superb sight as the cars raced nose to tail around the parkland track. Initially Kane made a small gap, but he was soon reeled in again and there was nothing to choose between the four cars for the second half of the race.“My car started to go off a bit and the cars of the guys behind seemed to get better,” said Kane. “Then I was struggling on the brakes,” he added, having defended his lead from Caine to take an important victory for his title challenge. “I just need to keep on doing that!”Caine had his strongest race of the season to date and finished just seven-tenths of a second behind Kane. “Steven made a mistake into the hairpin and locked up, but so did I, and I looked in my mirror and James was locked up as well! Team Parker Racing has done a fantastic job with the car,” said Caine. Sutton and Harvey were always in the wheel tracks of the two leaders. “It was nose-to-tail the entire time; we all had the same pace,” said Sutton. “I enjoyed the race, but I’m disappointed with the result,” said Harvey.Sam Hancock (Motorbase Performance) was never far away from the four leaders in fifth place, while Nathan Freke took an excellent sixth in his debut race in the Porsche Motorsport entry. He had to find a way ahead of Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance) early on and, with a handy advantage in the pro-am category, Britnell didn’t want to fight too much with Freke.“There was no point in racing with him, but I kept him behind as long as I could before I let him through,” said Britnell, who then had to concentrate on the growing challenge of Bateman (Team Parker Racing). “Charles really came at me a couple of times,” said Britnell. However, on the penultimate lap, Bateman spun at the hairpin. “I was trying to line Andy up to go down the inside of him,” explained Bateman, who recovered to retain second place before Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) arrived in third. After starting at the back of the grid after a spin in qualifying, Rice quickly battled through to third in pro-am but could not make any further in-roads into the lead of Britnell and Bateman.