James Sutton set the pace in testing for the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Thruxton yesterday Wednesday (8 August) as teams prepared for the final two races of the season, which will be held at the Hampshire circuit in October.With local limitations dictating that mid-week testing is held during school holidays, the test sessions were held two months ahead of the races and so the weather in October could be considerably different to the warm dry and day conditions during testing.Sutton (Red Line Racing) was quickest overall with a best lap of 1m14.615s in the afternoon session, despite ending the session well off the track at Goodwood. "I had a few spins and managed to miss everything, but it was more luck than judgment," said Sutton after his high-speed off. However, there was virtually no damage to the car and his best lap was not bettered in the balance of the session.At the time of his spin, Sutton had been on a race-distance run as the team worked to find a good race set-up for the car at a track where tyre wear is often a major factor. "We can use that data," said Sutton, who had been working in conjunction with team mate Tim Harvey. "James' set-up was quicker, but didn't last," said Harvey. "We've learnt a lot today," he added, having set second fastest time of the day.Continuing his excellent recent form was Sam Hancock (Motorbase Performance) with third best time, while Jon Barnes was a very promising fourth best for Team Parker Racing. Barnes reckoned he could have been several tenths of a second faster. "I could have had a 1m14s out of it. My next lap was even quicker but I had a big slide at Church. But it's good progress and gives us some confidence going to Brands Hatch next week."Championship leader Steven Kane (Motorbase Performance) was down in fifth place, but didn't run a flying lap in the afternoon after clutch problems developed. "The morning session was quite good, but it's going to be completely different for the races in October," he said. Clutch problems also interrupted Michael Caine's running for Team Parker Racing, and he was sixth fastest but reckoned that he'd not really been able to set a representative lap.Seventh fastest and heading the pro-am runners was Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing), but he also thought he should have been faster. "I put some new tyres on and made a mistake on both of my best two laps," said Rice, who headed Charles Bateman (Team Parker Racing) by four-tenths of a second in the pro-am times. Bateman was back in his own car, which had just been rebuilt following his accident at Donington and used the morning session as a shakedown before going for a time in the afternoon. "There's more time to come and we know where we can improve," he said.Mark Cole was ninth fastest for Team Parker Racing, and plans to return to the Carrera Cup for the final two races of the season at his home track, while Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance) was tenth fastest.Porsche Carrera Cup GB results Date: Wednesday 8 August 2007 Venue: Thruxton Event: Testing

1 James Sutton Pro Red Line Racing 1m14.615s2 Tim Harvey Pro Red Line Racing 1m14.812s3 Sam Hancock Pro Motorbase Performance 1m14.934s4 Jon Barnes Pro Team Parker Racing 1m15.238s5 Steven Kane Pro Motorbase Performance 1m15.509s6 Michael Caine Pro Team Parker Racing 1m15.835s7 Nigel Rice Pro-am Red Line Racing 1m15.974s8 Charles Bateman Pro-am Team Parker Racing 1m16.395s9 Mark Cole Pro Team Parker Racing 1m16.595s10 Andy Britnell Pro-am Motorbase Performance 1m17.348s11 Steve Clark Pro-am Team RPM 1m18.299s12 Graeme Mundy Pro-am Willmott Racing/TWC 1m19.495s