Former Porsche GB Scholar and 2014 Carrera Cup GB champion Josh Webster (Team Parker Racing) topped Friday practice at Croft. Returning to the North Yorkshire circuit for the first time since 2016, the Porsche Carrera Cup GB was met with wet conditions for the morning session, and a tricky drying track in the afternoon. Mastering the slippery surface to rank alongside championship returnee Webster came 18-year-old Porsche GB 2018 / 2019 Junior Dan Harper (JTR) and George Gamble (Amigos Redline Racing).
Pro-Am category championship hopeful Jack McCarthy (Redline Racing) was another constant feature at the top of the timesheets, the Rookie ended the day P6 overall in the combined times. Fellow category challengers Karl Leonard (Team Parker Racing) and Jamie Orton (JTR) became locked in a close battle, ultimately the pair were separated by just 0.037sec. John Ferguson (Redline Racing) set the Am category pace, the Rookie emerged from the day ahead of category rivals Justin Sherwood (Team Parker Racing) and Peter Kyle-Henney (In2 Racing).
The morning session was punctuated by two red flag periods as several drivers left the circuit in difficult conditions, the afternoon session witnessed a frantic final few minutes as drivers exploited a drying track to set their fastest lap times. With mixed weather conditions forecast all weekend, tomorrow’s qualifying session looks likely to prove equally challenging and exciting.
Session 1 – 10:00 to 10:40
Track temperature: 11.7 degrees
The first drivers taking to the track in each category were Josh Webster (Team Parker Racing) – Pro, Karl Leonard (Team Parker Racing) – Pro-Am, and Justin Sherwood (Team Parker Racing) – Am
At the start of the wet session the drivers soon became accustomed to the conditions with lap times registering in the mid 1:25sec range
18-year-old Porsche GB 2018 / 2019 Junior Dan Harper (JTR) set the early Pro category pace from George Gamble (Amigos Redline Racing), and Webster
With 25 minutes of the session remaining Gamble was the first driver to set a time under 1:24sec – 1:23.716
In the Pro-Am category Jack McCarthy (Redline Racing) led Jamie Orton (JTR) and Esmee Hawkey (GT Marques)
In Am John Ferguson (Redline Racing) led a tight battle with Justin Sherwood (Team Parker Racing) and Peter Kyle-Henney (In2Racing)
With 22 minutes of FP1 remaining, a short red flag period occurred, the green flag was flown with 20 minutes to go
In the latter stages of the session, Webster joined Gamble and Harper lapping in the 1:23sec range, Harper leading Webster by just 0.069 with Gamble a further 0.104 behind
With less than 10 minutes remaining McCarthy lead the Pro-Am category fight from Orton and Leonard
Gamble set the fastest time of the session with just seven minutes remaining: 1:23.310
The session ended under red flag conditions with five minutes left on the clock, Dan Vaughan (Motorbase Performance) having made contact with the barriers in the final sector of the lap
Pro: Gamble, Harper (+0.190), Webster (+0.259)
Pro-Am: McCarthy, Leonard (+0.897), Orton (+0.934)
Am: Ferguson, Sherwood,(+0.584), Kyle-Henney (+0.602)
Session 2 – 14:00 to 14:35
Track temperature: 17.2 degrees
A drying track and clear skies welcomed the start of the day’s second practice session
A handful of drivers explored the available grip logging sighter laps on grooved wet weather tyres, most waited for a significant dry line to emerge before taking to the track
With less than 10 minutes to go all of the drivers took to the track on slick dry weather tyres, Jack McCarthy (Redline Racing) initially set the pace in P1 overall
In Am John Ferguson (Redline Racing) led Peter Kyle-Henney (In2 Racing) from Justin Sherwood (Team Parker Racing)
With less than five minutes of the session remaining 18-year-old Porsche GB 2018 / 2019 Junior Dan Harper (JTR) moved to P1 recording a time of 1:24.493s
George Gamble (Amigos Redline Racing) soon moved to P3 lapping 0.247s quicker than Josh Webster (Team Parker Racing)
In the final minutes of the session Webster improved to P1 but was immediately displaced by Harper making the order: Harper, Webster, McCarthy
As times tumbled up and down the order, Jamie Orton (JTR) moved to P2 in Pro-Am – P6 overall
At the flag it was Webster who topped Harper and Gamble – Webster being the only driver to lap the circuit in under 1:23secs
Pro: Webster, Harper (+0.158), Gamble (+0.927)
Pro-Am: McCarthy, Orton (+0.), Leonard (+1.315)
Am: Ferguson, Sherwood (+0.610), Kyle-Henney (+0.637)
Qualifying for round five will take place on Saturday 15 June between 15:45 and 16:15, with drivers fighting for the two points awarded in 2019 for the fastest time posted in each category over the course of the session.
Source. Porsche
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