Duckhams Yuasa Racing and Jacob Tofts continued their Porsche Carrera Cup GB Pro-Am championship challenge at Donington Park, claiming a podium finish and a spectacular last-corner victory across the weekend’s two races.

Despite facing a difficult start to the opening contest, Tofts produced an impressive recovery drive to underline the pace of the distinctive Duckhams and Yuasa-liveried Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Starting from the back of the grid, the 22-year-old immediately set about making progress through the field and was soon up to 14th overall, closing on Olli Meadows in the fight for third place in Pro-Am.

With Meadows in turn putting pressure on Ollie Jackson ahead, Tofts remained close to the battle and was ready to capitalise when an opportunity arose. When Meadows ran wide through Sheene, Tofts pulled alongside before completing the move into McLeans to take third in class.

He continued to push during the final stages and closed onto Jackson ahead, eventually bringing the car home third in Pro-Am and tenth overall to complete an excellent recovery from the rear of the grid.

Starting third in class for the second race, Tofts was once again in the heart of the Pro-Am action. His early progress was interrupted when Michael Keohane went off in front of him on the run to the final hairpin, which brought out the Safety Car.

When racing resumed on lap 10, the battle for Pro-Am honours quickly intensified. Stephen Jelley began applying pressure to class leader Jackson, with Tofts right behind the pair and waiting for an opportunity to make his move.

That chance came when Jelley locked up into Redgate, allowing Tofts to sweep through into second place. He immediately turned his attention to Jackson and remained inches from the rear of the class leader as the race headed towards its conclusion.

Tofts attempted to find a way around Jackson into Redgate, but it was at the final corner where the decisive moment arrived. With Jackson delayed behind Max Coates on the approach to Goddards, Tofts seized his opportunity, sweeping around the outside to claim the Pro-Am lead in dramatic fashion.

The last-gasp move secured his second class victory of the season and capped an excellent weekend for Duckhams Yuasa Racing, with Tofts adding a win and a third-place finish to his growing podium tally.

The results leave him third in the Pro-Am championship standings on 76 points as the season enters its closing stages, with the team now turning its attention to Croft and the next opportunity to strengthen its title challenge.

“It’s probably been the hardest weekend of the year so far. We didn’t seem to have much luck on Thursday with the test, and then that carried over into Saturday morning in qualifying with the unlucky clutch issue. The team took the clutch out to check it on Friday, and then, when I went to go out in qualifying, I just didn’t have a clutch. So, we were on the back foot, but the team worked so hard to make sure everything was right.

“We made it out for qualifying two, but those were my first three laps of the weekend. It was always going to be a bit of a challenge, and it’s a shame because the test was so good. My hopes were high, but we just didn’t really have the opportunity to convert that pace.

“Race one was good. It was just a bit harder to pass and stay with people. Our pace was still really good, and we had the fastest lap in class. We just couldn’t get the result to show it, really. That being said, third isn’t bad at all.

“We’re always trying to find things in the car; it’s just fine margins at this level. In the second race, we just found something and it was much easier to follow, which meant I could force mistakes and get ahead of people. To get the win on the last lap of that second race was really good. I’m happy to repay the team’s hard work with a result. We’ve still got some good points in the championship and there are still three more rounds left, so there’s a lot to happen.”