Tim Harvey ended the day on top of the time sheets in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB during testing at Thruxton yesterday (Friday 2 April) for the opening two races of the season. Ahmad Al Harthy (Red Line Racing) headed pro-am1, while Thruxton newcomer George Brewster (Celtic Speed) topped pro-am2.
On a rain-hit day, Harvey (Red Line Racing) was on the pace at the right moment as three laps at the start of the second session was the day's only dry window for the 25-strong Carrera Cup field. "I was trying to do a race run," said Harvey as rain swept across the Hampshire track once more. "But the car feels good in the wet and the dry. There's more grip at Thruxton than anywhere else when it rains."
The first test session was abandoned due to standing water after heavy rain, but a revised timetable allowed two 30-minute sessions later in the afternoon. With the track still wet but drying, the revised first session delivered representative times as Caine and Harvey used their experience to set the pace, with Caine ahead by one-thousandth of a second.
"The car was fine; we did a limited amount of running as the track was changing all the time," said Caine. However, the three dry laps in the afternoon would decide the time sheets and Caine didn't set a time before the rain arrived. Instead, second overall was Michael Meadows (Red Line Racing). "We were at the front of the queue for the session and got the extra lap in," said Meadows. "But there was rain on the screen from the start." Glynn Geddie (Team Parker Racing) was third in the dry running.
In pro-am1, Ollie Jackson set the first session pace for Addison Lee Motorbase, lapping a quarter of a second faster than Tony Gilham (ReDesign PHB Racing). "I'm quite happy with that; I'm glad the standing water was gone," said Jackson. But it was Al Harthy who jumped ahead in the early laps of the second session as he drove his Porsche at Thruxton for the first time. "I pushed from the start; I had to find out how the car was in the dry," said the Oman racer.
In pro-am2, Mark Hazell (JHR) set a cracking pace to head the wet times from Paul Mace (GT Marques) and Steve Parish (Motorbase Performance). "The wet is a great leveler," said Hazell, after using his experience of Thruxton to good effect. In the second session, Brewster jumped to the top of the category in the brief dry spell. He had missed the re-arranged first session, so his pro-am2 leading time came from his first three laps of Thruxton. "I've never been here before, and there's a bit more to go it it's dry." Glenn McMenamin (Red Line Racing) was second in the final positions.
