Stephen Jelley completed a perfect weekend with another victory in the final round of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Brands Hatch (Sunday 10 October). The final race of the season was played out in front of a huge crowd at Brands Hatch and in glorious autumn sunshine.
While Jelley won from the front, Ollie Jackson secured a pro-am1 double and George Richardson wrapped up a great weekend with his second pro-am2 win. However, the pro-am2 title went to Glenn McMenamin while Motorbase Performance clinched the team championship in dramatic fashion. With four laps to go, Tim Harvey was running second to Jelley and that put Red Line Racing at the head of the team title race by a single point. But when Harvey suffered a rear puncture with four laps to go, the Motorbase squad moved ahead to claim the team prize.
Jelley added to his weekend haul by winning the 'driver of the weekend' award, while Team Parker Racing won the 'team of the weekend' award.
Jelley (Team Parker Racing) got away best from pole to lead as Harvey (Red Line Racing), Euan Hankey (Team Parker Racing) and Michael Caine (Motorbase Performance) made a tight leading quartet. Just behind them, Jackson (Addison Lee Motorbase) slotted into fifth to take a clear pro-am1 lead.
With the top four cars so evenly matched, it was nip and tuck stuff and Jelley was always under pressure from Harvey. Unfortunately, a slight delay in traffic dropped Hankey and Caine a few yards back from the lead contest. For lap after lap, Jelley soaked up the pressure from Harvey, but then with four laps to run Harvey suddenly slowed and toured into the pits with a rear puncture.
Although Hankey and Caine ran close to Jelley over the final four laps, Jelley held his nerve to take his second victory. "Tim didn't make it easy," said Jelley. "To see him drop back was a big relief." Hankey swept through to second with Caine his constant shadow. "That was very, very hard work," said Hankey. "Michael was on me all the time; everything was going on!" Caine, meanwhile, was almost speechless having seen Harvey hit trouble for the first time in 2010 when he had clinched the overall crown less than 24 hours earlier.
Jackson completed his amazing 100% finishing record across 40 Carrera Cup races in two seasons with fourth overall and pro-am1 victory, but over the closing laps he came under considerable pressure from Tom Bradshaw (JHR), Charlie Bateman (Motorbase Performance) and Jonas Gelzinis (Juta Racing). "I got a bit held up by backmarkers and then I had to defend," said Jackson. "That's a great finish to the season."
In pro-am2, Richardson (Motorbase Performance) drove a fine race to finish in tenth overall to win the category and complete a great weekend. "Fantastic; I couldn't ask for more," said Richardson. With second in pro-am2, McMenamin (Red Line Racing) clinched the category title as Steve Parish (Addison Lee Motorbase) ran him close. "It's really tough; I'm just glad to be here, but it's not sunk in yet," said McMenamin who won the crown as George Brewster (Celtic Speed) raced to fifth in the category after the starting at the back of the grid with a 10-second penalty.
Finally, one of the best drives of the race came from Glynn Geddie (Team Parker Racing), who started from the pit lane after a big rush to get the car ready. As the team went to warm the car up before the race, a problem with the flywheel meant they had to take the gearbox out with less than half an hour to go. They just got the car fixed and Geddie then drove superbly to battle through to finish ninth overall.