Harry King (Allied-Racing) has hit the ground running in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland: The UK racer won the season-opening race on the famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) ahead of the two Dutchmen, Larry ten Voorde and Loek Hartog (both GP Elite). This was King’s debut in Porsche’s German one-make cup – which he promptly won. “It feels great to start the season with such a sense of achievement. We used the free practice to set the car up for this track. It makes me all the more pleased that we were rewarded as a team,” said King about his success in the race run as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) support programme.
The 32-strong field lined up on the grid in their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars in sunshine and temperatures of 19 degrees Celsius. Starting from pole position, King got off the line cleanly in his 375 kW (510 PS) Cup car and won the sprint to the first corner. In the first minutes, the 2022 champion of the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux eked out an advantage of almost two seconds, only to lose it during a safety car phase. For more than two laps, the field followed the Taycan Turbo S, which is decked out in a special livery this season to commemorate the anniversary of “75 Years of Porsche Sports Cars”. At the restart, King fended off ten Voorde’s repeated attacks and crossed the finish line first after 13 laps.
Ten Voorde made up two positions during the race and finished in second place. “The spectators were treated to some great racing today. After the safety car phase, Harry King and I drove through Eau Rouge wheel-to-wheel – that was spectacular. Ultimately, second place is a great result,” said ten Voorde. His teammate Hartog completed the podium. Shortly after the safety car phase, the 20-year-old advanced to third place and, in the final minutes, defended his position against his fellow countryman Morris Schuring (Fach Auto Tech). “That was an intense race. I lost a bit of focus at the end but I still managed to bring home the result,” explained Hartog. Schuring took the flag in fourth place.
Porsche-Junior Bastian Buus (Allied-Racing) wrapped up the first race of the season in fifth place. Starting from P8 on the grid, the Dane worked his way up the order with several overtaking manoeuvres. “Obviously, I would’ve liked to have finished further up the field but it’s a decent result considering my grid position. I start Sunday’s race from ninth place and I’d like to finish at least in the top five,” said Buus. Vincent Andronaco (Allied-Racing) concluded his first race in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland in sixth. This makes the 17-year-old from Hamburg the best driver from the Talent Pool – the one-make cup’s youth development squad.
Janne Stiak (Germany) experienced a special race: At the age of 16 years and 49 days, the junior driver from ID Racing set a new record as the youngest contestant in a Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland race. Stiak replaces Schuring, who was just 20 days older at his debut. Stiak, however, experienced an unlucky race at Spa-Francorchamps – the young German had to park his car in the pits early due to a collision.
This season’s first trophy in the ProAm class was claimed by Georgi Donchev (ProfilDoors by Huber Racing). The Bulgarian won his category on the 7.004-kilometre racetrack in the Ardennes ahead of the two Germans Sören Spreng (GP Elite) and Kai Pfister (HRT Performance).
Round two of this year’s Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland gets underway at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday. Larry ten Voorde starts from pole position. Two years ago, the two-time champion (2020 and 2021) won both championship races on the famous Formula 1 circuit. The race gets the green light on Saturday at 9:20 am local time and will be streamed live on http://www.ran.de, the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland Facebook and YouTube channels and the Porsche Motorsport Hub.
Result race 1, Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland
1. Harry King (United Kingdom/Allied-Racing)
2. Larry ten Voorde (Netherlands/Team GP Elite)
3. Loek Hartog (Netherlands/Team GP Elite)
4. Morris Schuring (Netherlands/Fach Auto Tech)
5. Bastian Buus (Denmark/Allied-Racing)
6. Vincent Andronaco (Germany/Allied-Racing)
7. Harri Jones (Australia/Scherer Sport PHX)
8. Theo Oeverhaus (Germany/CarTech Motorsport Bonk)
9. Leon Köhler (Germany/Huber Racing)
10. Alexander Tauscher (Germany/Huber Racing)
Source. Porsche
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