Motorbase Carrera Cup mid-term review
More race wins for Michael Caine and a first pro-am1 victory for Ollie Jackson are the prime targets for the Motorbase Performance team as the second half of the 2009 Porsche Carrera Cup GB starts at Snetterton on 1/2 August.Alongside its BTCC programme, Motorbase Performance has returned to the Carrera Cup this season. Team boss David Bartrum says that having a strong crew for the Carrera Cup team makes it possible for Motorbase to field two separate race-winning teams on BTCC weekends. "I flit between the two teams and I'm very lucky that I've got Lance Cornwell and Patrick de Groot on the Porsche team with a good crew."While Caine currently lies third in the overall driver rankings, with wins at Thruxton and Donington Park, Jackson is making great progress in the pro-am1 category during his debut season in the Carrera Cup.Bartrum says that Oulton Park was the most significant weekend to date, with Caine's title bid taking a serious knock when he failed to finish the opening race. "It was a very good weekend for Ollie, but for Michael it really dented our championship hopes and leaves us on the back foot against the on-form Tim Bridgman," said Bartrum."Young Ollie is progressing very well and getting better and better, and he scored two podiums at Oulton. It shows that all the work he has been doing with his engineers is starting to bring dividends. He's ahead of where I thought he would be at this stage. He's third in pro-am1, he's joint seventh overall and he's got Glynn Geddie and Tony Gilham all around him. At Oulton Park and Croft, Ollie came a long way."Croft was another good weekend for the team, with Caine being the fastest man on the track when heavy rain made conditions treacherous in the second race. "The wet race was magic, it was a really good effort," said Bartrum. "The guys managed to change the cars in a very short space of time, and they got it spot on."The team's reward at Croft was to be named 'team of the weekend' and Bartrum was delighted with the accolade. "The drivers did a very good job; Patrick the engineer did a really good job and the whole crew worked very hard. Getting the 'team of the weekend' award was great and it was earned. I love it when we get something like that, it means quite a lot to me personally. When Porsche say you've got team of the weekend, the guys got that, not me. That was our first 'team of the weekend' for a long time, so I was very pleased with it."But now the focus is Snetterton, the home track for both Caine and Jackson. Bartrum is determined to keep Motorbase on the Carrera Cup podiums, both for the overall results and in the pro-am1 category.