John McCullagh was crowned the 2013 Porsche Club Championship with Pirelli champion on Saturday October 5th – second in class in the final race of the season at Snetterton in Norfolk enough to give the 49-year-old the title after a hard-fought season. It all looked over for McCullagh in race one at Snetterton, his car one of the first to encounter oil on the circuit and his Porsche 968 CS slid off into the barriers – only for the race to be immediately stopped giving him the class win as the results were wound back a lap.

McCullagh won Class Two of the competitive series a superb 15 times in 17 races, but his win tally was for much of the season matched by his title rival from class one Tom Bradshaw. His car was prepared by Team Birkbeck Rallysport – a link to John’s days as a works driver in the British Rally Championship in the 1990s, John taking the Porsche title in only his second full season of circuit racing.

“I’m delighted – it’s been a great season,” said John. “I haven’t driven with an eye on the points all season, but when you get to the last race with the championship it was a case of having to come home in one piece – especially since we damaged the car earlier in the day.

“It’s quite remarkable, it’s only my second season of racing and although I’ve got some experience in motorsport I found racing very different and had to work to get to grips with it. I’ve had some good racing this season and we have been consistently the quickest front-engined car, even beating the more powerful class one cars. Silverstone in September was a key race, I had to avoid an incident ot he opening lap and was right at the back of the field, but managed to fight my way back and win the class.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the year. The camaraderie in this series is great and the competition is tough, it’s been some serious motor racing with some really nice people – my car was in a bad way after the first race today but the number of offers of help we received from in the paddock was brilliant. I’m looking to do something in this series next year – maybe step up to class one.”