Harvey and Hankey top Carrera Cup qualifying at Croft
Tim Harvey and Euan Hankey
shared the glory in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB during qualifying at
Croft today (Saturday 19 June) ahead of rounds nine and ten of the
championship. Harvey (Red Line Racing) set the pace for round nine, but Carrera Cup Scholarship racer Hankey (Team Parker Racing) bagged his first pole in the championship for round ten, which will be the 150th race in the history of the Carrera Cup GB.
In pro-am1 Jonas Gelzinis (Juta Racing) and Ollie Jackson (Addison Lee Motorbase) shared the leading times in the category, while George Richardson (Motorbase Performance) and George Brewster (Celtic Speed) set the pro-am2 pace, with Richardson claiming his first category pole position.
Harvey made the best use of strange track conditions to claim pole for round nine with a best lap of 1m22.191s on his first quick lap of the session. "It could have been a massive amount better," he said after a big slide at the Hairpin. Despite that moment, Harvey was just under a tenth of a second faster than Hankey. However, on second best times, Hankey was ahead by 22-thousandths to claim pole for the weekend's second race. "The track just got slower through the session," said Harvey. "The car was great; I probably should have got two poles," he added.
Hankey was elated to claim his first Porsche pole as well as the first pole position for a Carrera Cup Scholarship driver. "I'm absolutely over the moon, but it was a weird session and you had to do your lap straight away." Stephen Jelley (Team Parker Racing) and Michael Caine (Motorbase Performance) were third and fourth for round nine and then reversed places for round ten as Glynn Geddie (Team Parker Racing) posted fifth best time for both races.
In pro-am1, Gelzinis set the pace for the first grid as he really came to terms with the Croft track to make it four poles from six races, while Jackson edged ahead of his championship rival on the second grid. "Traffic, traffic, traffic," said Jackson of his session, after setting his best time on his tenth lap on a new set of tyres. Behind Gelzinis and Jackson in pro-am1 was the evenly matched trio of Tony Gilham (Collins ReDesign Racing) and Red Line Racing's Ahmad Al Harthy and Archie Hamilton.
There was a shake up in pro-am2 as Richardson and Brewster took first and second for round nine and then reversed places for round ten. "That's my first pole in the Carrera Cup," said Richardson. "I was just concentrating on being smooth and it's all good learning." Meanwhile, Brewster was equally pleased with the times. "You do have to be committed round here; I'm very pleased with that," he said. In both cases, the gap was no more than a tenth of a second. Paul Mace (GT Marques) and Mark Hazell (JHR) claimed third and fourth places for each race.
Stats
Tim Harvey takes pole position for round nine
Euan Hankey takes his first pole position for round ten
Jonas Gelzinis and Ollie Jackson top pro-am1
George Richardson and George Brewster head pro-am2
Superb 26-car grid
