Sam Hancock scored his debut championship win in round 17 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Knockhill today (Saturday 1 September). In a dramatic race, Steven Kane retired on the opening lap and fifth place was enough to put James Sutton into the championship lead, while second place has moved Tim Harvey firmly into contention for the title with three races to run. The action started at the first corner as Motorbase Performance team mates Hancock and Kane ran side by side. Hancock had the inside line and Kane slid wide across the gravel. Kane’s car bounced into the air, which damaged its radiator, and then came back onto the track in front of Jon Barnes (Team Parker Racing). Barnes had to take to the grass on the right and in the confusion Sutton (Red Line Racing) ran wide onto the grass at the next corner. The result of this was a healthy first lap lead for Hancock as Michael Caine (Team Parker Racing) dived through to second from Tim Harvey (Red Line Racing), Barnes and Sutton. However, both Caine and Barnes had problems. Caine had briefly followed Kane towards the chicane and collected a screen full of coolant, which left his struggling for visibility, while Barnes had lost his front splitter and was struggling with understeer. Kane, however, headed for the pits to retire and suffer a major blow to his championship hopes. Up front, Hancock had no such problems and took his lead out to around six seconds as Harvey challenged Caine. “When the sun came out I couldn’t see a thing,” said Caine. “I had the sun in my eyes along to Carlube and it was like having a blanket over the screen. When the sun went in, it was okay.” Struggling to see his braking point on lap 13 at Carlube, Caine ceded the place to Harvey, realizing that following Harvey would make it easier to see the line. Once through to second, Harvey chased Hancock and brought the gap down to under four seconds, but Hancock was not to be denied his first Carrera Cup win. “I’ve been working towards this all year,” said Hancock. “That’s a great sense of relief!” Harvey, too, was delighted with a result that has pushed him right back into the title race. “I had a very good race. This championship has a habit of turning around and it’s all to play for.” Caine completed the podium, while Barnes and Sutton ran fourth and fifth to the flag. Knowing that Kane was out, Sutton opted to make certain of a strong finish rather than launch an attack on Barnes and it was a result that takes him to the top of the points. Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance) led pro-am from the start after making a great getaway, and lost his challenger when Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) went out with a broken driveshaft. However, up to Britnell came Charles Bateman (Team Parker Racing) after battling ahead of Jeremy Metcalfe (Porsche Motorsport). Britnell was struggling at the hairpin after an inadvertent bump from Rice in the first corner confusion. That bent the exhaust tail pipe on Britnell’s car. “It wouldn’t pull out of the hairpin in second, I was having to go down to first gear.” Bateman saw his chance and pulled off a superb move to cut inside Britnell on the ext of the hairpin and out-drag him up the hill. “Charles drove a nice clean race,” said Britnell as Colin Willmott (Willmott Racing) joined them on the pro-am podium. “I knew Andy wouldn’t let me go down the inside of him under braking, he’s too wily for that,” said Bateman after his second pro-am win.