CRH Racing tasted the highs and lows of motorsport as they made their GT Cup debut at Donington Park this weekend, April 23rd and 24th. In a superb first ever race in the team’s Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car, Jonathan Evans claimed second place in race one of the weekend’s three scheduled rounds – but in race two he was the victim of a clash with another car that caused enough damage for the team’s pristine Porsche to be out for the rest the weekend and requiring substantial repairs before being fit to race again.Qualifying for Saturday’s two races saw Jonathan in the Porsche, team-mate Tom Bradshaw rated a ‘professional’ driver under the rules of the series and only able to contest Sunday’s race, and a great performance in the 20-minute session saw him finish second in class, and a superb 11th overall despite a gearbox issue. The first of the day’s two 25-minute races saw him make a good start safely holding the inside line into the first corner, and from then on he stayed clear of his rivals to take a fine second place in class as the chequer flag flew after 21 laps.“It was a strange race start, I was expecting everyone to go off quicker but seemed like even the big cars were hanging around!” said Jonathan. “On lap two I had another Porsche hit me as he tried to go through, but I was able to pull away and a second place is a great start. We seem to have sorted our gearbox issue but we can still make the handling better so a lot more to come!”Race two later in the day saw Jonathan fourteenth at the end of lap one, but the race was to prove to be a short one for CRH Racing. On lap three Jonathan had an Audi on his outside when they reached the chicane at the end of the lap, and as they braked the other car lost control and slammed into the side of the Porsche, sending both cars skating across a gravel trap and out of the race.The damage to the Porsche meant that its race weekend was over, leaving the team with a race against time to return it to race trim before the next races at Brands Hatch in two week’s time. With no time to waste, the car was already en route to a specialist repairer on Sunday.“I had the inside line as we went into the chicane,” explained Jonathan, “and I was happy to leave him room round the outside but we were still going straight when he suddenly slammed into me. The impact was big enough that I banged my arm on the roll cage but the car has come off worse, one wheel and suspension ripped right off and lots of other damage. We showed what we can do and the team’s potential in race one which makes this even more of a disappointing way to end our first meeting.”“These things happen in racing,” said Tom. “it’s not the first time I haven’t even got to drive a car at a meeting but it was an unfortunate incident and no-one from CRH Racing was at fault. We just have to go onwards and upwards from here, we have some positives from the weekend – Jonathan did really well in race one despite never having driven the car in anger, to come away with a second place gives everyone confidence going forwards.”Next Races: Brands Hatch, Kent, May 7th and 8th.