Tim Harvey completed a perfect start to his season by making it four wins in a row in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Rockingham (Sunday 25 April) in round four of the championship.
Ollie Jackson (Addison Lee Motorbase) completed a perfect weekend with a second pro-am1 victory from Tony Gilham (Collins Redesign Racing), while Glenn McMenamin (Red Line Racing) clinched pro-am2 glory from Steve Parish (Addison Lee Motorbase). Jackson took the 'driver of the weekend' award, while Motorbase Performance was confirmed as the 'team of the weekend'.
"That's the best start I've ever had to a Carrera Cup season; we've all worked very hard for that and the guys in the Red Line team have done a great job," said Harvey, after extending his series lead to 12 points. Harvey led the field into the first corner and, despite the race-long presence of Michael Caine (Motorbase Performance), was able to control the race from the front to complete a clean sweep of victories.
Caine never quite felt he could challenge the leader as strongly as he had done in Saturday's race. "I struggled with the front of the car; we had a better car yesterday than we did today," said Caine. "There was a big scramble into the hairpin on the first lap and early on I had to defend from Glynn Geddie."
The first lap scramble included a big attack from Euan Hankey (Team Parker Racing) who tried a bold move around the outside but spun. He rejoined at the tail of the field but further around the lap had to spin to avoid a pro-am2 tangle and ended his race in the gravel. Up front, Harvey and Caine edged clear as Geddie (Team Parker Racing) headed his team mate Stephen Jelley and Jackson. That was how they finished as Geddie and Jelley scored their best results of the season to date and signaled their intention to challenge Harvey and Caine over the coming races.
Jackson was elated to take his third pro-am1 victory from four races with another faultless performance, while Charlie Bateman (Motorbase Performance) battled through to sixth to finish the weekend on a high note. Seventh, having started at the back of the grid, was Gilham (Collins ReDesign Racing) who drove a superb race. "I had a few close shaves on the opening lap, but I had to go for it," said Gilham. Despite a mid-race spin, Jonas Gelzinis (Juta Racing) bagged another podium finish with third in pro-am1 from Ahmad Al Harthy (Red Line Racing).
McMenamin took pro-am2 victory after a nicely measured drive, having chased Steve Parish (Addison Lee Motorbase) in the early laps. "I knew I had the pace today, but I didn't attack him too early," said McMenamin. However, when letting Gilham through, Parish made a mistake at Deene and McMenamin seized his chance to take the pro-am2 lead. "I'm relieved to be back up there," said McMenamin of his return to the top step of the podium. Third in pro-am2 was the best result of the season to date for George Richardson (Motorbase Performance).
