The three 25-minute Porsche Club Championship with Pirelli races at Silverstone this weekend will go a long way to settling the 2013 title, with class leaders Tom Bradshaw and John McCullagh the main challengers for the championship. Bradshaw has been the man to beat in class one, his Hartech Boxster S having had a run of mid-season wins, while McCullagh has been in similar form in his class two 968 CS and holds a slender three point advantage at the top of the points table as the series makes it second visit of 2013 to the Northamptonshire circuit..
In his first season of Porsche racing, former single-seater championship Bradshaw has been quick and consistent, his only mechanical issues coming at the very first meeting. Since then he has set the class one pace, McCullagh matching his winning run until Castle Combe in August, when a long safety car period followed by a red flag saw the former rally driver have to settle for second in class.
Bradshaw suffered one of his rare losses when the series visited Silverstone in June, but since then has been on imperious form. With the Paragon cars of Mark Sumpter and Adrian Slater absent this weekend, the pressure will be on the other front runners to keep Bradshaw at bay. Pete Morris and Mark McAleer have set the pace in the newer 996 C2 cars this season, Morris taking all three wins at this meeting last year – and once more sponsoring the races this year courtesy of his PMC Midlands firm.
Bradshaw’s team-mate Marcus Carniel should be in the thick of the action, while Richard Ellis has been the quickest of the 993 C2 runners, and the long straights of Silverstone should suit the more powerful cars. Gary Marsh and Mike Johnson have been top-ten runners in their new for 2013 996s, while Steve Cheetham was right there in his Boxster S at Oulton Park two weeks ago.
McCullagh has frequently been running in the top ten overall, revelling in battling with the class one cars early in the race before settling down to make sure he claimed the class two points. Stuart Ings took his Boxster to its first class two win at Combe, first driver to beat McCullagh on the road this season, while Mark Koeberle has been a frequent class podium visitor and is long over due his first class win.
Qualifying is at 09.00 on Saturday Morning with the first of Saturday’s races on the full Silverstone grand Prix circuit at 10.35am. Second of the three 25-minute races is at 15.15, with the Sunday’ sole race
