Jason Templeman headed the testing times at Thruxton on Wednesday ahead of the opening rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain. The Team VLR driver made excellent use of a steadily drying track to top the times in the official pre-race test, but was chased hard by Jonathan Fildes (TCR). Just 0.015s split them at the end of the day.
"That’s a good start, I’ve just got to try and stay in front," reckoned Templeman. However, with eight-tenths of a second covering the top four drivers, the stage is set for some fierce competition in Sunday’s pair of races.
Fildes, at one of his favourite tracks, underlined his status as a strong contender while Tim Harvey was third fastest for RPM Motorsport. "We were just trying a few little tweaks," said Harvey. "We really wanted to evaluate tyres before the weekend."
Chris Cooper (Team Parker Racing) was an excellent fourth fastest ahead of his Porsche debut, while the top six was completed by David Pinkney (BEAST Racing) and Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing).
Straight back into the groove for his return to Carrera Cup was Jonathon Cocker, who has rejoined Red Line Racing for at least the first four races of the season. "I’m really looking forward to it, I really like Thruxton," said the 17-year old, who was seventh fastest having run in the top four for much of the session.
In trouble on the day, however, was title contender Richard Westbrook (BEAST Racing) who had to curtail testing when his car broke a driveshaft. "I’ve only done 10 laps so far this season," said Westbrook. "Now, it’s straight into qualifying on Saturday." Also hitting dramas was Martin Rich (Team Parker Racing) who spun backwards into the tyre wall at Goodwood and damaged his car.
Leading times
1 Jason Templeman (Team VLR) 1m18.438s
2 Jonathan Fildes (TCR) 1m18.453s
3 Tim Harvey (RPM Motorsport) 1m19.061s
4 Chris Cooper (Team Parker Racing) 1m19.315s
5 David Pinkney (BEAST Racing) 1m19.698s
6 Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) 1m19.711s
7 Jonathon Cocker (Red Line Racing) 1m19.795s
8 Jason Young (Red Line Racing) 1m20.312s9 Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance) 1m21.312s
10 Matthew Marsh (Porsche Cars GB) 1m21.493s
