LACK OF POWER PREVENTS TEAM FROM REACHING THIER POTENTIAL

Trackspeed Racing continued to experience mixed results, this time at the third round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Silverstone Circuit, the ‘Home of British Motorsport’, last weekend.Proving once more that the team has the know-how to be a Championship contender, it was still lacking the raw power needed to show the true potential of both Porsche entries. A strong start for #12 car of Jody Firth and Warren Hughes saw them qualifying P6 and finishing the 3-hour race P12. It was more disappointment for the #33 car of Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen who, after a solid performance all weekend, were forced to retire from an almost certain fifth place finish due to mechanical failure.Car 12 - J.Firth & W.Hughes

Qualifying: P6 [Aggregated time]Race: P12After ending FP1 in P20 with a time of 2:06.074, #12 car of Firth and Hughes were hampered by a series of red and yellow flags during FP2. The duo finished P15 with a time of 2:05.875.In Qualifying, a crowded pro field and a distinct lack of power, meant that Hughes was only able to place #12 in P19 on the time sheet with a lap of 2:03.930 (+2.572). Firth, with an ever increasing show of form, took the Trackspeed Porsche up to P11 before setting the car’s fastest lap with a blistering last sector in the final minutes of the session, propelling the pairing up to P6 with a combined time of 4:07.943 (+2.788).

RACEWith a chain of unfortunate race results behind them, Firth was hoping for a clean start to the race on Sunday afternoon. Firth kept his head, and out of trouble, to move up into P5 at the end of lap one of the three hour enduro.A battle with the #23 Audi resulted in Firth taking P4, before closing in on Marco Attard #79 to challenge for P3. During the lengthy safety car period the team opted to keep Firth out instead of pitting, resulting in the #12 leading the race.After the first pit stop and driver change, Hughes found himself down in P16 but over the course of his stint managed to fight his way up to P8. Pit stops for other cars on the grid meant he was running in P5 at the halfway stage.With just over an hour to go, Firth took over for his final stint. Now in P13, he managed to set the fastest lap time for the #12 car; 2:07.361. As the clock ticked down from 35 minutes, Hughes took over for the last time. He managed to move up to P12, but was unable to catch #888 of Joe Osbourne in front.

Jody Firth #12:“I am disappointed in the overall result, but I am extremely pleased in my personal performance. Warren and I did two perfect stints and so it just shows you how uncompetitive the Porsche is. I think we were 3.3 seconds slower than the fastest lap and, without blowing either of our trumpets, we’re not three seconds slower than anybody! So it needs to be looked at hard, but at least the result gives us an argument point with the SRO. The team on our car has been faultless, all weekend, hats off to them and let’s see where we go from here.”Warren Hughes #12:“It was difficult. It’s the same story; we just feel like we’ve got nothing to fight with in terms of raw pace. The qualifying, obviously Jody’s pace brings us into play, but the inherent speed of the car for us just isn’t there. 75kg is a big penalty to have and the base car even without the additional weight penalty is not strong enough. Jon And Phil, with no weight penalty, qualified 1.4 seconds off pole so that’s an indication of how far off the car is. The competition has just taken a massive leap forward. Phil, in the Porsche, qualified near the top last year; this time he’s equaled the time he did last year but everyone else has just taken a huge step forward, so I think our balance of performance is well out of sync.”