Porsche Carrera Cup GB, the fastest single marque GT racing championship in the UK, enters its milestone 20th season in 2022 with a capacity grid packed with racing talent. Adding to the excitement, the 2022 season welcomes the latest generation of 911 racing car – the 510 hp ‘Type 992’ 911 GT3 Cup. 2022 also marks the arrival of Porsche Carrera Cup GB 2022 / 2023 Junior Adam Smalley who follows in the footsteps of 2020 / 2021 Junior and 2020 champion, Harry King.
Porsche Carrera Cup GB retains its traditional position as a key part of the TOCA package, home since the championship’s inception in 2003. Running in support of the British Touring Car Championship, a full calendar of 16 races will be spread across eight race weekends. Drivers in three categories (Pro, Pro-Am and Am) will compete under unchanged regulations with racing getting underway at the championship’s opening weekend at Donington Park on 23 and 24 April 2022.
Pro category
The Pro category driver battle in 2022 will be led by an enthralling mix of familiar names and hungry newcomers. 2021 Rookie champion Kiern Jewiss (Team Parker Racing) returns with the title firmly in his sights this time. The Kent-based racer chalked up four race victories in 2021 to leave him a close third in the Pro category driver standings. However, the 19-year-old is not the only returning former race winner. Will Martin (Comline Richardson Racing) – one of the youngest winners in the history of the championship – took two victories in 2021 and returns with the experience of two seasons under his belt. Meanwhile, Matthew Graham (Redline Racing) is another proven race winner, the 2020 Rookie champion returning after a partial season in 2021.
Leading the charge of the newcomers is Porsche GB 2022 / 2023 Junior Adam Smalley (Duckhams Yuasa Racing with Redline). Smalley makes his debut in the championship as reigning 2021 Ginetta GT4 Supercup champion and begins his first year in the role. Taking a step up the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid is Theo Edgerton (JTR), the 2021 Porsche Visit Cayman Islands Sprint Challenge GB champion and Porsche Carrera Cup GB Junior 2022 / 2023 finalist wanting to continue his Porsche success in the 911 GT3 Cup. Jack Bartholomew (Comline Richardson Racing) is another Porsche Visit Cayman Islands Sprint Challenge GB race winner making the transition from the to the 911 GT3 Cup.
In addition to Smalley and Edgerton, a third Porsche Carrera Cup GB 2022 / 2023 Junior finalist makes his debut on the grid – Gus Burton (Rosland Gold Racing by Century Motorsport). That means three of the four finalists will take up the challenge of Porsche Carrera Cup GB in 2022 adding further depth to the Pro category.
Seb Morris (Team Parker Racing), Jake Giddings (Toro Verde GT) and Oliver White (Duckhams Yuasa Racing with Redline) complete an exceptionally strong Pro category driver line-up for 2022. Morris was 2017 British GT champion in the GT3 category, Giddings has a wealth of racing experience in the GT4 category, while White previously won the Formula Ford Walter Hayes Trophy. All three newcomers have the potential to challenge for race victories in 2022.
Pro-Am category
Reigning Pro-Am category champion Ryan Ratcliffe (Team Parker) returns for 2022, but the 28-year-old Welshman will face stiff competition as he bids to replicate his success from 2021 – a season which saw him finish on the category podium in all but two races. Fellow returnees Micah Stanley (Redline Racing), Nathan Harrison (Redline Racing) and Charles Rainford (CCK Motorsport) each took Pro-Am victories last season and the trio now have a full season of experience upon which to draw as they challenge for the category crown.
Waiting to upset the established order are three Pro-Am category newcomers. Hugo Ellis (JTR) is a former World Karting champion, the 20-year old joined by Will Aspin (Team Parker) who steps up from the Ginetta GT5 Challenge, and Angus Whiteside (Toro Verde GT) who is also a former Ginetta racer. Completing the category driver line-up is 35-year-old Charles Bateman (Team Parker) who returns to Porsche Carrera Cup GB following an absence of nine years.
Eight teams
Six returning teams are joined by two newcomers for 2022. Rosland Gold Racing by Century Motorsport is a familiar name on the TOCA package, involved in motor racing for 25 years and the longest competing team in British GT and Ginetta GT4 Supercup history. Toro Verde GT made its motorsport debut in 2021 and arrives in the championship fielding an impressive four-car entry spanning all three driver categories.
Seeking to replicate their 2021 success in the championship for Teams is Team Parker Racing. Part of the championship from day one, the team is managed by the first ever Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion, Barry Horne. Team Parker Racing will face a repeat of the pressure it was put under in recent years from the most successful team in championship history, Redline Racing. 2019 Teams champion, JTR, also returns as does Valluga, Comline Richardson Racing, and CCK Motorsport.
Driver progression
Porsche Carrera Cup GB has long represented a key platform for driver progression within the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid, leading even to the very pinnacle of motorsport – Formula One. In 2021, Dan Cammish became the first triple champion in Porsche Carrera Cup GB history (2015, 2016, 2021). For 2022, Cammish returns to the BTCC where he will launch a bid for championship glory. Meanwhile, Porsche Carrera Cup GB 2020 / 2021 Junior – and 2020 champion – Harry King has progressed to a full time Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup campaign with the front-running BWT Lechner Racing squad.
Porsche GB 2022 / 2023 Junior
Following an intense selection process 20-year-old Adam Smalley from Poulton-le-Fylde was announced as Porsche Carrera Cup GB 2022 / 2023 Junior in November 2021. The reigning 2021 Ginetta GT4 Supercup champion was one of four talented finalists picked from over 50 applicants and is the recipient of one of the largest individual prizes in UK motorsport, contributing £85,000 per year towards his racing budget. In 2022, Smalley will race with the team that took Dan Cammish to overall championship victory in 2021 – Duckhams Yuasa Racing with Redline.
2022 regulations
In 2018, the championship introduced reverse grids for the second race of each weekend, a feature that remains for 2022. Following the first race, a number between four and six is selected at random. This number determines whether the first four, five or six drivers across the line for the first race will have their grid positions reversed for the second. All other competitors will form on the race two grid according to their finishing position in race one. Introduced in 2019, should a competitor fail to finish in race one, they will take up a grid position for race two immediately behind the last finisher in their category from race one. Both races continue to feature a standing start.
The points structure remains unchanged across all three categories. A weighting for Pro category drivers in the first race rewards qualifying performance and partially offsets any penalty for a reverse grid placing in the second. In a similar spirit, fastest lap in each category during qualifying at each race weekend will be awarded two championship points. An overall points table calculated on the same basis as in 2021 will determine the Team and Rookie championships. Drivers with the highest number of fastest laps in each category (Pro, Pro-Am, Am and Rookie) at the end of the season will receive a TAG Heuer chronograph watch.
‘Type 992’ 911 GT3 Cup
Following its introduction to Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in 2021, Porsche Carrera Cup GB welcomes the arrival of the new ‘Type 992’ 911 GT3 Cup for the 2022 season. Porsche has built over 4,200 Cup cars to date, this latest iteration following in the tyre tracks of its successful ‘Type 991’ predecessor while offering developments across the board.
Powered by an evolved 4-litre six-cylinder boxer engine producing 510 hp and 470 Nm of torque, mechanical highlights include – for the first time on a Cup car – double wishbone suspension on the front axle. The arrival of the new car will reduce the advantage of the returning drivers as the entire grid adapts to the fresh demands of this latest 911 GT3 Cup.
Source. Porsche
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