It is a Silverstone showdown for the Porsche Club Championship title contenders, and with bonus points for starting each of the final three rounds on the Northants tracks full GP circuit, the leading contenders still have it all to play for over Friday September 21st and Saturday 22nd. Paul Follett has headed the overall table for much of the year in his Class Two 968 CS, but Class One pace setters Mark Proctor and Pete Morris are also chasing success, and one poor result for Follett could see the whole situation change.With Class One points leader, and reigning champion, Mark Sumpter not able to be at Silverstone, the way is open for his rivals to claim the class and make their overall title challenge. Yorkshireman Proctor is in his first season of Porsche racing, but the ex-BTCC racer has shown his experience and been quick from the off, a consistent finisher but still chasing his first outright race win in his 993 C2. . Morris elected to make the most of a rules change for 2012 and came out in an EMC Motorsport-run 996 C2, the model newly eligible for the series this season. The most powerful car in class, but also with the heaviest minimum weight to compensate, Morris has worked on his car through out the year culminating in two wins at Croft in July. A valued supporter of the series, Pete is putting up the PMC Midlands trophy this weekend, giving the field even more to race for.Former champion Mark McAleer was the first to give the 996 a race win at Donington in June, and is usually in the thick of the front-running action, often battling with brother-in-law Proctor. Adding some variety to the lead battle have been the pair of Hartech-run Boxters, Ben Demetriou taking a win at Brands Hatch at the start of the season and Marcus Carniel pushing hard and keen to emulate his team-mate.Richard Ellis gave his Strasse liveried 993 C2 a first race win at Donington, and just heads team-mate Chris Dyer in the points table, Dyer the leading front-engined Class One runner in his 968 CS. If the weather turns wet, ex-rally driver Jon McCullagh is always worth watching, pushing hard in his 968.
Follett has taken five class wins to build up his Class Two lead, running a 968 CS, the rules putting 45kg extra weight in the car compared to a Class One 968. He heads into the final three races with a handy 47-point lead, but with a driver scoring 20-points for just starting a race, there are more than enough points on offer for his rivals to capitalise if he makes any mistakes.
Class rival Alex Eacock is also his closest overall rival, just three points ahead of Proctor, and showed his pace and intentions with two wins at Castle Combe at the end of August. Other to watch for in the class are Richard Higgins, who has battled over-heating issues but was on the pace in the final race at Combe, and Mark Koeberle, overdue a class win.Giving everyone even more to race more this weekend, the three races will also be for the Bill Taylor Memorial Trophy, raced for annually in memory of a long-time Porsche supporter who succumbed to cancer. To allow a larger range of Porsche racers to contest the trophy, an invitation class sees cars not eligible for the Porsche Club Championship on the grid, with some very special machinery expected out to spice up the action even further.Qualifying is at 11.20 on Friday morning with the first of the three 25-minute races at 15.25 that afternoon. Saturdays two races are at 09.35 and 13.20.
