Alain Menu set the pace in testing for rounds seven and eight of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Oulton Park today (Friday, 21 May). Driving the VIP car entered by Porsche Cars GB, Menu lapped in 1m24.805s, to be half a second faster than his rivals.“The pace is good,” reckoned the former BTCC champion. “I’m pretty happy with the way it is going,” he added, having set a storming pace at his favourite track. His best lap in the cooler second session was 1.8s quicker than the pole position time set at Oulton Park in September 2003, and 2.4s inside the existing lap record. Jason Templeman (Team VLR) jumped up to second fastest in the closing moments of the second test session. Templeman, winner of one of the Oulton Park races at the end of 2003, turned in an excellent performance to be second fastest, while championship leader Tim Harvey was third for Team RPM. Having encountered a gearbox problem early on in the first session, Harvey switched to the team’s second car for the day, but will revert to his regular race car for qualifying and the races. “We didn’t go for a really quick time on new rubber,” reckoned Harvey, who is confident that fresh tyres for qualifying will put him right with his old BTCC rival Menu.Richard Westbrook (Red Line Racing) was another driver not to run new tyres during testing, but he still posted fourth best time. “We know we can get the best out of new tyres tomorrow,” reckoned Westbrook, who is a big fan of the demanding Oulton circuit.Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) and Chris Cooper (Team Parker Racing) completed the top six times. However, Cooper was struggling with a heavy cold and admitted to be lacking energy for the physical challenge of the Cheshire track. Very closely matched with Rice and Cooper was Jonathan Fildes (TCR), while Martin Rich (Team Parker Racing) and Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance) both broke the 1m27s barrier. That put the first nine drivers under the existing lap record for the Island circuit at Oulton Park!Leading times:

1 Alain Menu (Porsche Cars GB)           1m24.805s2 Jason Templeman (Team VLR)             1m25.301s3 Tim Harvey (RPM Motorsport)            1m25.536s4 Richard Westbrook (Red Line Racing)    1m25.830s5 Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing)           1m26.467s6 Chris Cooper (Team Parker Racing)      1m26.491s7 Jonathan Fildes (TCR)                  1m26.503s8 Martin Rich (Team Parker Racing)       1m25.838s9 Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance)  1m26.982s10 Jason Young (Red Line Racing)         1m27.311s