Two-hundredths of a second split Richard Westbrook and Tim Harvey at the top of the testing times ahead of rounds 19 and 20 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Donington Park yesterday.
As the title contenders prepared for the final two races of the season, they were almost inseparable in testing for the weekend’s championship decider. “There’s nothing in it,” said Westbrook after edging his rival by a tiny fraction.
Both Westbrook (Red Line Racing) and Harvey (Team RPM) set a blistering pace in the second test session of the afternoon. “It couldn’t be much closer,” said Harvey, while Westbrook is determined to head the times again in qualifying on Saturday morning when there is a vital championship point at stake.
However, Westbrook and Harvey may not have things all to themselves as Damien Faulkner (Motorbase Performance) and Jason Templeman (Team VLR) lapped within two tenths of the ultimate pace. In fact, it was Templeman who headed the times after the first session, pleased to be back on front-running pace after struggling for speed at Snetterton three weeks earlier.
“It’s a fast pace,” admitted Faulkner, the first of the drivers not to have tested at Donington earlier in the week. “We’re just playing around with the car,” he said after the opening session, before moving up to third in the second session with a time only two-tenths away from Westbrook and Harvey.
Fifth fastest on his first experience of driving a Porsche was New Zealand touring car ace Paul Radisich in the VIP entry from Porsche Cars GB. He worked away to bring his time down impressively as he learnt about racing a Porsche. “It’s a beautiful car to drive,” he said after his first stint in the 911 GT3 Cup car.
Completing the top six with an excellent performance was Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing), while seventh best was Jonathan Fildes (TCR). However, the Irish racer was limited to only a few laps in the faster second session when a gearbox problem developed.
Jason Young (Red Line Racing), David Pinkney (Motorbase Performance) and Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance) completed the top 10 times as the top 12 drivers all set times underneath the existing lap record.
1 Richard Westbrook (Red Line Racing) 1m10.214s; 2 Tim Harvey (Team RPM) 1m10.233s; 3 Damien Faulkner (Motorbase Performance) 1m10.427s; 4 Jason Templeman (Team VLR) 1m10.504s; 5 Paul Radisich (Porsche Cars GB) 1m10.788s; 6 Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) 1m11.025s; 7 Jonathan Fildes (TCR) 1m11.370s; 8 Jason Young (Red Line Racing) 1m11.511s; 9 David Pinkney (Motorbase Performance) 1m11.624s; 10 Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance) 1m11.748s