Sam Hancock claimed his first win of the season in round seven of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Thruxton yesterday (Saturday 17 May) as Tim Bridgman fended off Tim Harvey for second place. Nigel Rice topped the pro-am1 category after battling among the pro drivers. Poleman Michael Caine (Team Parker Racing) led the opening lap but ran fractionally wide on the exit of the chicane and over a bump in the grass, which pitched his car into a spin in front of the pits. He avoided the pit wall, but dropped to eighth place before he could get going again. That put Hancock (Jota Sport) ahead from Bridgman (Team Parker Racing) after they ran side-by-side on the opening lap. Hancock had grabbed second place as they raced through Church for the first time and then moved into the lead when Caine spun. With Harvey (Red Line Racing) shadowing Bridgman, Hancock was able to build his lead a little each lap and even a mid-race sprinkle of rain did not upset his rhythm. “Luck was finally on my side today,” said Hancock after a tyre went down as he cruised around on the slowing down lap. “Over the second half of the race I was nursing the car home and I had a little bit in hand if I had needed it,” said Hancock after scoring the first Carrera Cup win for Jota Sport. Bridgman had to race hard to hold off Harvey and only in the final three laps did the gap between them grow to more than a second. “Sam drove a great race and I was just trying to keep Tim at bay,” said Bridgman. “I picked up a vibration about four laps from the end and just backed it off,” said Harvey of his closing laps. However, Harvey was able to get to the line ahead of Phil Quaife (Jota Sport) and the recovering Caine. For many laps Quaife had battled hard to fend off a determined challenge from Charles Bateman (Team Parker Racing) and two laps from the end Bateman made a bold move down the inside under braking for the chicane. “I could see Michael Caine coming up behind us, so I went for it,” said Bateman. However, he spun across the grass and bumped the tyres, which put him out of the race. That left Caine chasing Quaife through the final two laps and there was only half a second between them at the flag after a dogged recovery drive from Caine. In the early laps, Rice (Red Line Racing) ran strongly up with the pro drivers and ahead of Duncan Tappy (PCGB), but when Caine squeezed ahead of Rice into Allard it also allowed Tappy to move past the pro-am1 leader. Tappy duly took sixth place, with Rice seventh and Tony Gilham (ReDesign Racing) eighth and second in pro-am1.