The Porsche Cup GB is just weeks away with the first race taking place on April 5 at Brands Hatch. With this in mind we decided to bring you some of the finer points of this year's championship, in case you don;t already know. Our reporter for the season Richard-Lee Williams has just spoken to Porsche GB and there might be a space left - so if you're keen pay attention.
Drivers
There are three titles up for grabs: Pro, Pro-Am and Pro-Am2. In Pro and Pro-Am (the top two categories), drivers contest the series in Porsche's very latest-specification 911 GT3 Cup model.
Pro is professional drivers (in terms of their experience and racing background) in 08/09 cars (eg Tim Harvey, ) Pro-am1 is for non-Pro drivers in 08/09 cars (Lewis Hopkins and Tom Bradshaw, winners 2009 Porsche Carrera Cup Scholarship)
Pro-Am2 is for pre-'08 models driven by 'gentleman' racers as well as young drivers making the switch from single-seaters or other one-make categories such as George Richardson, stepping up to the challenge from Ginetta juniors .The category also permits drivers to tackle only selected rounds in a move to contain budgets.
Budgets
PH spoke to a couple of teams about the costs of running a car and driver packages but it was no real surprise that these details are not forthcoming. They keep these figures strictly between the driver and the team principal as different drivers present different opportunities and packages making them individual cases.
To try to get some sort of answers we then spoke to Porsche and it said an '09 car will cost £90,000 from them and running costs for a full season are estimated between £100,000 and £150,000 depending on testing schedules.
The point system for the racing will follow last year's. In each race, drivers will score points on the following scale: 20-18-16-14-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 to the first 15 drivers in each race, with an additional point for pole position and a point for fastest lap in each race.
Meanwhile, new for 2008 is the pro-am2 category for drivers competing in 2008 model year cars and earlier. Points will be scored on the basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, with an additional point for pole position and a point for fastest lap in each race. Pro-am2 points can only be scored in eight race weekends.
Money, money, money
Oh and there's lot of money to win too, but I doubt it will cover your costs for the year. It may be enough to replace the graphics messed up by all thescrapes and stones that got you the podium though, who knows...
The driver and team fund is in Excess of £150.000. In each of the 20 races the leading Professional racer will win £750 with prize money through to £300 for fifth. In the Professional Amateur 1 category the leading driver in each race will win £500 with £150 for fifth.
At year-end the champion Professional will pick up a cheque for £15,000, while
the leading Pro-Am1 will win £7,000, the leading Pro-Am2 will win £5,000 and the
Team Champions will win £7,000 Additional cash rewards include £500 for the driver of the weekend, £1000 for the team of the weekend and at the end of the year £1000 for the most improved driver.
In addition to the prize money the Professional Champion, The Pro-Am1 Champion and the Winning Team Manager will have the use of a 911 road car for one year.
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The cars will be available to teams and drivers from Porsche GB in early March, giving them a month the get their packages set up and general acts together before the first race in April.