Michael Caine kept the pressure on title rival Tim Harvey by taking a double pole position for rounds 17 and 18 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Donington Park today (Saturday 18 September).
Caine (Motorbase Performance) took pole for both races as Harvey (Red Line Racing) qualified second for round 17 but only fourth for round 18. It was a tremendous session for the Motorbase Performance team as it claimed five out of six pole positions with Ollie Jackson (pro-am1 pole for round 17) and George Richardson (pro-am2 pole for both races) heading their respective classes. Pro-am1 pole for round 17 went to Jonas Gelzinis (Juta Racing).
With rain threatening, Caine set the pace with a storming 1m08.168s lap. He then posted a second-best time of 1m08.341s to secure pole for round 18 and earn two extra championship points. "All credit to everyone who works on the car," said Caine. "The rain could be coming tomorrow and we need it to be changeable; I've got to take the risks," he added. Harvey was second for round 17, but slipped to fourth on the grid for round 18 behind Euan Hankey and Stephen Jelley from Team Parker Racing. So close is the Carrera Cup field that less than half a second covered the top 10 cars for round 17.
"This weekend it is very important to get two good finishes," said Harvey, who goes into the opening race with his championship lead trimmed to 25 points. Hankey was third fastest for round 17 and then second for round 18 after a strong qualifying performance. "That's a lot better than in testing," said Hankey. "I'm happy to have good consistent pace." Glynn Geddie (Team Parker Racing) was fourth and then seventh, while team mate Jelley fifth and third in the tightly packed bunch.
Pro-am1 poles were shared between Gelzinis and Jackson, with the positions reversed for the second race. "It's very close," said Gelzinis. "Tomorrow it might rain and I don't like rain," said the Lithuanian. Jackson, meanwhile, felt that he had more time to come. "I think I could have found another couple of tenths on the second set of tyres," he said. Right in contention in pro-am1 were Tony Gilham (Collins ReDesign Racing) and Ahmad Al Harthy (Red Line Racing) with third and fourth fastest in each race.
Richardson was in fine form in pro-am2 to take both category poles, attributing his strong pace to input from team mate Caine and the Motorbase engineers on his data. "It's a good step forward," said the teenager. "Mr. Caine takes a lot of the credit for that; I worked with the team on the data and it paid off." Glenn McMenamin (Red Line Racing) was second fastest in pro-am2 for both races. "I thought I'd done okay, but George has found a big chunk of time," said McMenamin. George Brewster (Celtic Speed) and Mark Hazell (JHR) were right in contention in third and fourth places.
