Damien Faulkner topped the times in testing for rounds 17 and 18 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Snetterton yesterday. In the second hour-long session, the Motorbase Performance racer broke the 1m10s barrier to top the times as title contenders Tim Harvey (Team RPM) and Richard Westbrook (Red Line Racing) both lapped within a fraction of a second of Faulkner’s best.“The car is good; as it always is,” said Faulkner. “We did a little change to the car between the test sessions and that made it even better,” he added. He will now go into Saturday’s qualifying session determined to stay at the head of the times.Harvey had set the pace in the first session. “We’ve got a good balance,” said Harvey, who had spent time at Snetterton last week carrying out touring car tyre testing duties. Westbrook, meanwhile, improved by three-tenths in the second session to post a best of 1m10.103s. Fourth fastest went to Jonathan Fildes (TCR). “The car was getting easier to drive as the session went on; we’ve got a very, very good race pace,” said the Irish charger, who ended the day only two-tenths down on Westbrook. Fifth fastest was a fine performance from Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance) while Brands Hatch winner Jason Templeman (Team VLR) was down in sixth. Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) made good progress in the second session to post seventh fastest, still only just over a second away from Faulkner’s leading time.Eighth fastest went to championship newcomer Alex Mortimer (Team RPM) after a highly promising debut. The teenager went eight-tenths of a second quicker in the second session as he learnt about the car. “I’m just here to learn,” said the law student. “The Porsche has about twice the weight and power of anything I’ve driven before!”Completing the top 10 times were Jason Young (Red Line Racing) and Gary Britnell (Motorbase Performance), while just outside the top 10 was David Rothwell in the Porsche Cars GB entry. Rothwell, who earned the drive for winning the 2003 Michelin Porsche Club Championship title, was hindered by an engine problem that left him with only a handful of laps in the second session.Leading times:

1 Damien Faulkner (Motorbase Performance)          1m09.927s2 Tim Harvey (Team RPM)                               1m10.026s3 Richard Westbrook (Red Line Racing)                   1m10.103s4 Jonathan Fildes (TCR)                               1m10.383s5 Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance)          1m10.724s6 Jason Templeman (Team VLR)                       1m10.798s7 Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing)                             1m11.156s8 Alex Mortimer (Team RPM)                      1m11.291s9 Jason Young (Red Line Racing)                      1m11.482s10 Gary Britnell (Motorbase Performance)          1m13.129s