Team Parker Racing secured podium positions with Euan Hankey and Glynn Geddie in the latest round of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Knockhill, as Stephen Jelley continues to hold onto third position in the championship standings ahead of his two team-mates.
Porsche scholarship winner Hankey returned to his best form by taking a fine second place, as Geddie equalled his season-best Carrera Cup result with a third.
Team Parker Racing driver coach Tim Bridgman, who claimed the 2009 title and is racing this season in the Formula 1-supporting Porsche Supercup with the squad, stepped back into a Carrera Cup GB car during Wednesday’s test session and provided strong input for the drivers.
Hankey, who qualified on the front row for race one and third for race two, said: “Everything is a lot better. Tim had a mega line at the chicane and he has drilled it into us. I have new dampers on the car and I managed to sort myself out, although the best lap I did wasn’t particularly good, because I got held up at the hairpin.”
On his local circuit, Aberdeen racer Geddie was disappointed to qualify fourth fastest after getting baulked in traffic, but thrust himself ahead of Hankey on the opening lap of race one to move up to third. With frenetic battling among the top five, Hankey and Jelley – another to suffer in traffic in qualifying – collided on the fifth lap, forcing Hankey out of the race and demoting Jelley to 10th, from where he recovered to take seventh.
Geddie felt that he could have challenged for second or even the win had it not been for his qualifying problems. “Third is OK,” he said. “I had the pace on the first couple of laps, but the problem was I did too many laps in qualifying and that meant my tyres went off sooner than the other drivers at the front.”
The second race began with drama, when Jelley was hit by a rival and was forced into the pits to replace a punctured left-rear tyre. Geddie again made a rocket start to demote Hankey for third, but on the second lap he hit engine coolant that had been left on the circuit by a first-lap accident and was forced into the gravel trap. Hankey lost only a small amount of time due to the fluid and emerged in third. From there, he provided a highlight of the race as he snatched second place in a great manoeuvre, then narrowly won a fierce battle for the runner-up spot.
“It was a relief to get on the podium, and to cover up for another bad start!” said the Somerset racer. “In fairness I should have been challenging for the win but, with the rubber down on the track from the Touring Car races, I just could not sort the chicane out and kept losing time there.”
Geddie and Jelley made superb recoveries, with the Scot charging from 12th to seventh, and the Leicester racer – helped by a safety car – battling from 17th to ninth. In addition, Geddie set the fastest lap of the race.
The team’s pro-am1 driver, Alex Martin, qualified sixth in class and replicated that position in race one, before recovering from an early incident to take a fine fourth in class in the second race.
Team principal Stuart Parker summed up: “That was much better and the guys were all much closer to the pace. They all had the speed but it didn’t quite come together, which is a shame, but the good thing is they’re all fighting at the sharp end. Our best result was from Euan – he really good his head down and had a great weekend.”
The Porsche Carrera Cup GB again enjoyed live coverage of its second race at Knockhill on ITV4, and was streamed live on itv.com. The next round takes place at Leicestershire squad Team Parker Racing’s local circuit of Donington Park on September 18/19.
