Bradshaw, Sumpter win at Wet and Dry Croft‏ Porsche Club Championship

Two very different and dramatic Baylis & Harding Porsche Club Championship with Pirelli races at Croft on Saturday, May 10th saw Tom Bradshaw win a wet race one, while Mark Sumpter won in the dry at the end of the afternoon at the North Yorkshire circuit. Mister consistency Pete Morris took a brace of second place finishes to head the championship, Paul Livesey and Andy Toon sharing the Class Two victories

QualifyingIt was a wet track at the start of the morning’s 20-minute qualifying session, the entire field electing to go out on wet tyres with the sun starting to appear through the clouds. Mark Sumpter set the early pace, going quickest in his Paragon 964 C2 on his sixth lap – his time standing for the rest of the session despite his closest rivals all going quickest on their final flying laps as conditions improved. Bradshaw was second quickest in his Hartech 996 C2, with Adrian Slater third and Pete Morris fourth.“It was hard to judge as we were getting no times in the pit lane,” said Sumpter, “so I just had to drive as hard as I could. I was worried as I knew it was getting drier at the end but I hadn’t gone any faster – I just knew I had done a reasonable lap early on.”In Class Two, Mark Koeberle was the pace setter in his County Classics 968 CS, a fine seventh overall with Paul Livesy just behind and usual rivals Andy Toon and Stuart Ings a second further back.“The team put a wet set-up on the car and it worked really well,” said Koeberle, “my only problem was trying to find some space on the circuit. We were set up for the conditions and I was just hoping we were fast enough.”Race OneAs the cars formed up at the end of the pitlane for race one, the darkening skies released the threatened rain – stranding the early arrivals on slick tyres. On the green flag lap almost half the field peeled off into the pits to for wet tyres. Bradshaw had the front row to himself as Sumpter pitted, while Morris was alone on row two with Slater also pitting. Richard Ellis on row three elected to stay on slick tyres.As the teams worked in the pitlane to change tyres the race started, Bradshaw leading ahead of Morris, Jake McAleer the first of the cars released form the pitlane closely followed by Slater after the field passed. Bradshaw eased away at the front, while Morris had McCullagh right with him for second and a strong drive from Class Two’s Paul Livesey saw him running fourth overall.Slater was tearing up the order, into the top ten by lap two and picking off the front runners. Bradshaw had the race under control at the front, while Morris opened a gap on McCullagh. In the final laps Bradshaw was under no pressure, while McCullagh closed right in on Morris’s Strasse 996, who defended into the last corner to hold onto second.A storming drive from Slater saw him finish in fourth in his Paragon 964, Chris Dyer fifth in the Strasse Cayman after a long battle with Class Two winner Livesey. Sumpter, having a delayed start for the pit lane fought his way to seventh, setting fastest lap on the way.“It was nice to have the front row to myself,” said Bradshaw. “I was sat in the collecting area on wet tyres just praying for it to rain, and it then bucketed down! I got away with it lightly as Mark and I were on about the same pace. I got a good getaway and from then on the car was perfect – you don’t often say that about a racecar but that was as close as we are going to get it.”“It was a bit of a raffle on what tyres to go for,” said Morris. “We kept changing our mind but in the end went to wets and I was thinking ‘please rain’ – and it did. They were going off at the end as we couldn’t change the suspension setting at the front, but I am happy with second.”“That was an exciting race, “said McCullagh. “I got a reasonable start and was up with Pete Morris pretty much from the beginning. I dropped a back a bit at one point, but was right with him again at the end, but not quite close enough. He knew I was there and was very defensive on the final lap. I enjoyed the race and pleased with the result.”“It was fun racing the Class One guys,” said Livesey. “I had a great battle with Chris Dyer but he got past me fair and square. The car felt really good and I thoroughly enjoyed that race, we think we may have blown a head gasket though, so that might be us for the day.”Race TwoIt was a dry track that greeted the Porsche runners for race two, Sumpter and Bradshaw both making good starts from the front row to head for the first corner side-by-side. Sumpter clipped the apex kerb which sent him wide, Bradshaw taking the lead from Slater, Sumpter third ahead of Morris and McCullagh at the end of lap one.Bradshaw began to ease a gap, but by lap three his 996 was starting to trail an ominous stream of smoke, while in the car Bradshaw was battling with no power-steering, which saw him run wide on the hairpin exit, Sumpter going past for the lead followed by Slater. The latter then made a dramatic exit from the race, a brake failure into the quick Tower corner seeing his 964 plough off the circuit and way into an adjacent field, fortunately without damage to driver or car.The officials started displaying a warning flag to Bradshaw who pitted and retired at the end of lap eight, leaving Sumpter ahead and Morris battling with Richard Ellis for second and McCullagh closed in on the pair. An engine issue saw Ellis pull off, Morris taking second behind Sumpter a second clear of third-placed McCullagh. More oil went down when Jake McAleer suffered an engine failure at the back of the circuit and lap times slowed, Kevin Harrison taking fourth in his final run in his faithful 964, with David Botterill fifth ahead of Dyer’s Cayman.“I should really have used my head and let Tom have the corner at the start,” said Sumpter, “I was still a bit up on him and we played a game of chicken…and he won. I bounced off the inside kerb and that sent me bouncing off across the circuit.“I rejoined third or fourth, but I knew we had the pace and it was a good race. Before the oil went down the pace was fast, there was oil in several places but fortunately I had a big enough gap by then that I was safe out in front.”“Points make prizes and I should still be leading the championship,” said Morris. “Mark Sumpter was quick there and I had to let him go, then I saw Adrian loose his brakes and go flying off at a fair rate of knots. I had a battle with Richard’s 993 then he buzzed his engine, then I was nursing the car home.”“It’s been a good day,” said McCullagh, “a tough one for a lot of people but we seem to have picked our way though all the attrition and get the car on the podium twice. I seemed to have been chasing Pete Morris each race, but we are getting closer to him every time and I’m looking forward now to the next outing at Silverstone.”The Class Two battle was frenetic, the leaders dicing with Class One cars in the top ten as well as with each other. Andy Toon took the win in his Strasse 968 after having gone past Livesey on lap 14 as the latter went wide at a corner, Koeberle third just behind the pair.“I was really enjoying myself,” said Toon. “I was racing were I wanted to be and I made a good start and had to keep the pressure on every lap. I was able to keep with them, I knew where my car was good and I just bided my time and found a way past.”Baylis & Harding Porsche Club Campionship with Pirelli, Round Three: 1 Tom Bradshaw (996 C2); 2 Peter Morris (996 C2) +30.944s; 3 John McCullagh (Boxster S); 4 Adrian Slater (964 C2); 5 Chris Dyer (Cayman S); 6 Paul Livesey (944 S2); 7 Mark Sumpter (964 C2); 8 Jonathan Evans (Boxster S); 9 Steve Cheetham (Boxster S); 10 David Botterill (964 C2). Class Winners: Bradshaw; Livesey. Fastest Lap: Sumpter 1m36.261s (78.536mph).Race Two: 1 Sumpter; 2 Morris; 3 McCullagh; 4 Kevin Harrison (964 C2); 5 Botterill; 6 Dyer; 7 Mark McAleer (996 C2); 8 Evans; 9 Andy Toon (968 CS); 10 Livesey. Class Winners: Sumpter; Toon. Fastest Lap: Bradshaw 1m30.129s (83.880mph).Next Rounds: Silverstone, Northants, June 21st and 22nd.


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