Team Parker Racing’s Stephen Jelley scored his first podium finish since switching from touring cars to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Brands Hatch on Sunday.
But it was team-mate Glynn Geddie who made the most progress in the championship with a pair of fourth-place finishes that leapfrog him above fellow Team Parker racer Euan Hankey and into third position in the championship.
On a circuit where he shone in 2009, Aberdeen youngster Geddie qualified third for both races, just 0.2 seconds from pole position, while Leicester man Jelley made strong progress to take fourth and fifth on the grid for the two races.
Heavy rain meant that both races would be wet. In the first race, Jelley made strong progress after slipping to seventh in the early stages. He clawed his way back up the field and snatched third place from Geddie into the high-speed Hawthorn bend on the sixth lap of 15, retaining the position to the finish.
“Maybe I was a little bit too cautious for the opening couple of laps,” said Jelley. “It’s sensible to find your feet and then, once you know what the car’s doing, you can crack on. After non-finishing two races already this season, I didn’t want to do anything stupid. The guys who came by me in a ballsy manner early on both went off, so that paid off for me.”
Geddie felt that a decision to start the race on used tyres did not pay off, but was on a charge in the second race. He made a great getaway to vault to second, then put race winner Tim Harvey under enormous pressure for the first few laps. Eventually, Geddie dropped back and would finish in fourth place again.
“The car was mega to start with – it was lit,” he said. “But halfway through the track went from being wet to greasy, and at that point I couldn’t find the pace on the tyres.”
Unfortunately, Jelley dropped out early on with clutch problems, bur Hankey upheld Team Parker Racing honour behind Geddie. After a disappointing qualifying, in which he put himself on the fifth row, the Porsche Scholarship winner raced through to an excellent fifth in race one, hot on the heels of Jelley and Geddie. In race two he made it up to sixth position.
“Considering my qualifying was diabolical – I went off on both my sets of tyres – it was good, solid points for the weekend,” said Somerset racer Hankey. “I had bad oversteer in the second race, but before then the car was fantastic.”
Irishman Michael Leonard joined the team for the first time this season and ran strongly to fourth place in the pro-am1 class in the first race. He was looking even better in race two: running second for much of the race, Leonard was third in class when he slipped wide with three laps remaining after hitting a slippery painted white line and dropped to sixth in pro-am1.
“I was hoping to get a test in before the weekend,” said Leonard, “but the car needed repairing after the previous driver crashed it. Fair play to the team for getting me out – and thanks to the boys.” Leonard will miss the next round as he is on honeymoon, but will then rejoin the team. “I’m pleased because I was taking on the boys in pro-am1, and I’ll be here for the rest of the season,” he added.
Team boss Stuart Parker said: “Stephen’s podium was good. We’ve learned a lot this weekend and we feel that we’re a lot happier now with the new slick Michelin tyre. All we need to do now is sort our ultimate qualifying pace out. We had a very good 3-4-5 in race one – now we need to convert that to a 1-2-3!”
The Porsche Carrera Cup enjoyed live coverage of both races at Brands Hatch on ITV4, and was streamed live on itv.com. The next round takes place at Oulton Park, Cheshire, on the weekend of June 5/6.
