Harvey wins Carrera Cup round three at Rockingham
Tim Harvey completed a hat-trick of early season race wins in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Rockingham today (Saturday 24 April) in round three of the championship. Harvey led from the start and fended off the challenge of Michael Caine to extend his championship lead.
Ollie Jackson (Addison Lee Motorbase) scored an emphatic pro-am1 victory from Tony Gilham (Collins Redesign Racing), while Mark Hazell (JHR) made it a hat-trick of wins in pro-am2 from Steve Parish (Addison Lee Motorbase).
Harvey converted his pole position into an opening lap lead and with Caine on his tail they quickly started to edge clear of Euan Hankey (Team Parker Racing) who battled through to third in the opening laps. As ever, Harvey and Caine were very evenly matched and the gap was seldom more than a second.
Harvey had the better pace initially, but Caine came back strongly mid-race and was close enough to run side-by-side with his rival into Deane Hairpin on lap 10. But Harvey stayed ahead and dealt with a late safety car period to win by just over half a second.
"I pushed quite hard early on," said Harvey. "But then I had to have a word with myself to tidy it up. Three wins on the trot is the best start to a season I've ever had in Carrera Cup." Caine felt that he had the pace to win, but the safety car didn't help his plans. "I think our car was better today, but there wasn't much in it," he said.
Hankey ran a secure third to score a hat-trick of podiums, while Jackson drove a fine race to take fourth and win pro-am1. For much of the race, Jackson was under pressure from Tom Bradshaw (JHR), but a rear puncture later sent Bradshaw into a brush with the wall at Turn One and the safety car was sent out while his stricken car was moved.
"Hankey got the break on me early on, so I was just sitting there looking after my tyres," said Jackson after a nicely measured drive. Under the safety car, Gilham was able to close up to Jackson, but it also brought Glynn Geddie (Team Parker Racing) up to Gilham's tail and at the re-start Geddie dived briefly ahead. "Geddie got a run on me and that cost me the chance to go after Jackson," said Gilham. Jonas Gelzinis (Juta Racing) completed the pro-am1 podium, with Ahmad Al Harthy (Red Line Racing) in fourth.
Until the final lap of the race, McMenamin (Red Line Racing) led pro-am2, the safety car closed the gap right up and allowed Parish to attack the leader into Deane for the final time. "I was putting pressure on him and he outbraked himself," said Parish, who nipped through as McMenamin spun. Though Parish took the flag, he was later penalised two seconds for passing Hazell under a yellow flag and so it was Hazell who was confirmed as the pro-am2 winner from Parish and George Brewster (Celtic Speed) as a very frustrated McMenamin finally finished seventh.