Four podium finishes represented another convincing weekend for the Team Parker Racing drivers in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Thruxton.
Parker with Juta drivers Euan Hankey and Stephen Jelley each claimed a second and a third place, with Hankey promoting himself to the runner-up position in the championship standings after six of the19 races.
Hankey qualified second for both races, feeling that he may have had pole had he not run too hot into the chicane and lost time leaping over the kerbs.
Both Hankey and Jelley, who had qualified fourth, drew abreast of pole position winner James Sutton as they entered the Campbell-Cobb-Segrave Complex, but Jelley was edged wide and forced down to fifth.
While Hankey applied enormous pressure to Sutton throughout the race, and was finally pipped by less than half a second, Jelley recovered his lost places with audacious manoeuvres into the super-fast Church Corner to take third.
In the second race, Hankey again had to concede to Sutton into the Complex. Although he pressured for the lead, he started suffering a glitch on downshifts from fourth to third and third to second gears, locking the rear tyres and contributing to grip problems. When he was delayed lapping a backmarker, Jelley (from third on the grid) latched onto his tail with three laps remaining, and the Leicester man demoted the Taunton racer around the outside into the chicane on the penultimate lap.
“I was disappointed with my first race,” said Hankey. “James made an atrocious start and I made an initially good one, but then I fluffed it and after that ran wide at the Complex. I knew James would pull away initially, because we’d set our car up to come on later, but every time I got close I’d lose aerodynamic grip in the dirty air and get big understeer. I clearly had the pace so it was frustrating not to win.
“In the second race I almost crashed a million times! My rear tyres went from perfect to knackered in an instant. But I’m happy to get the points, which is important for the championship.”
Jelley said: “I spent a lot of time over the weekend working on getting the tyre pressures for the race spot-on. In the second race, it was maybe too good in the late laps because that means it probably wasn’t as good as it could be early on. We’ll do a bit of testing before the next round to make up for the lack of pre-season running we had because our deals were so late!”
Team principal Stuart Parker said: “It was good points in the bag for both drivers. It’s hard around here – it’s so fast and furious, and because of the long corners affecting the tyres there’s a big drop-off in pace from the start to the finish of a race. Both Euan and Stephen drove well and they’ve just got to continue putting points on the board.”
TORDOFF LEADS BUT DENIED MAIDEN WIN
Team Parker Racing-run Carrera Cup rookies Richard Plant and Sam Tordoff had a solid weekend at Thruxton, with both drivers netting a pair of top-10 finishes.
Plant, who had never raced at the ultra-fast Thruxton circuit, scored an eighth and a 10th, while Tordoff was ninth both times out.
Tordoff retained his grid position of eighth early in race one, but lost a place midway through the race and held off fellow Yorkshireman Plant thereafter.
In the second race, Plant got the better of team-mate Tordoff, who led a furious three-car scrap and did a sound defensive job to keep ninth.
“I messed up qualifying massively,” said Plant. “I should have been fourth instead of 10th, but locked up at the last corner when the tyres were at their best. I’m still learning the track so I can’t be too disappointed, and two finishes are good.”
Tordoff, who led last time out at Donington Park, said: “I’ve just not got the speed this weekend and I had two tough races where I had to defend rather than go forward. I’ll put this weekend down to experience.”
Team principal Stuart Parker said: “We never got it to click quite right with Sam and Richard this weekend, but out of those who’d never raced in the Carrera Cup before this year they were still the quickest in qualifying. This is such a difficult circuit and they just have to keep learning and put it to good use.”
BIRTHDAY BOY PIERCE ON PRO-AM1 PODIUM
From the Dextra JD Pierce by Parker team, Derek Pierce produced the highlight result of the Carrera Cup weekend at Thruxton, with a heroic drive to finish third in the pro-am1 class in the opening race.
Scotsman Pierce, who was celebrating his birthday, got the jump on team-mate Alex Martin off the startline, then demoted Ahmad Al Harthy into the Complex to take third. From then on, Pierce did an incredible defensive job to fend off Al Harthy from all angles, with Martin right behind.
In the second race, Pierce finished just off the podium in fourth place, while Martin was unlucky to pick up a puncture on the opening lap and, after losing time in a pit-stop, he drove to seventh in class.
“That was hard work – pressure from lap one to 21!” reflected Pierce after his podium. “I was much quicker in some parts of the circuit and Ahmad was in others. It was a really intense race, and it was great to have such close and clean racing. Now I just need to get my head around the car more and qualify better.”
Martin said: “The first race was great fun but we didn’t get the set-up quite right. In the second race it felt great but I clipped a kerb when everyone bunched up on the first lap and the tyre came off the rim. I was lucky not to stick it in the wall!”
Team principal Stuart Parker said: “Alex was unlucky, but had a good solid fourth in the first race, while Derek had a great race to defend so well – it was bloody difficult but he managed it.”
As part of the ultra-popular British Touring Car Championship package, the Porsche Carrera Cup GB enjoyed live coverage of its two races at Thruxton on ITV4 and ITV4 HD, and was streamed live at itv.com/touringcars. The series now moves on to Oulton Park in Cheshire for the fourth round on the weekend of June 4/5.
