Team Parker Racing kept up its winning ways in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB as Harry King and Kiern Jewiss both claimed overall victories, with the latter sealing the Rookie Championship as he scored his fourth win of the year.
Harry made a good start from pole position in race one, holding the lead to Redgate and from there he didn’t look back, romping clear to a dominant victory by 6.7 seconds. Behind, Kiern fell to third at the start before Dan Cammish got by into the chicane in the early stages, then losing a few seconds behind Will Martin who was leaking fluid on the circuit. He fought back and closed in on the leaders and was rewarded when Lorcan Hanafin was given a five second penalty for track limits infringements, promoting him to the podium places.
In the Pro-Am class Ryan had a superb contest, climbing from fifth on the grid to take the win, even having to fight his way past the Pro car of Will Bratt in the process, but sadly was given a ten second penalty for a starting outside his grid box, falling to fourth, while in Am Justin Sherwood held on despite the best efforts of Justin Armstrong to take another step towards his third-straight title.
It was Kiern who seized the advantage early in race two, taking two places to claim the lead on the exit of Redgate and down the Craner Curves. He was under significant pressure from Josh Malin throughout but held his nerve to claim his fourth victory of the season and the Rookie Championship as well.
Behind him Harry was in the mix, briefly gaining third from Hanafin before being run wide out of the chicane and falling to fifth, before reclaiming fourth when Hanafin fell back. Ryan once again was on the move and fought his way up from fifth to second in Pro-Am, getting ahead of Nathan Harrison who is his closest rival in the standings.
In the Am class the championship closed significantly, as Justin Sherwood had another tough contest, spinning into retirement when his left rear tyre failed at the Old Hairpin and Justin Armstrong had a trip through the gravel after contact. He, however, managed to get back on track and by gaining third on the final lap, moves into contention in the championship, just seven points behind his namesake.
The results mean Kiern has an outside shot at the overall championship title at Brands Hatch in two weeks’ time, sitting 14 points behind Cammish, while Ryan needs five points for the Pro-Am crown and either of the two Justins will claim the Am title. The team will be out for two practice sessions at the Kent venue on Friday, October 22, with qualifying the following day at 14:20. The final two races of the 2021 Porsche Carrera Cup GB season are scheduled to get underway at 12:10 and 16:20.
Kiern Jewiss
G1 – 2, R1 – 3
G2 – 3, R2 – 1
Championship: 3 (95 points)
Rookie Championship: 1 (208 points)
“We were pretty strong in qualifying and race one was a little bit, not inconsistent, I just struggled and got caught up on Will [Martin]’s water. We lost lots of time but came back towards them at the end which was good.
“Race two [Josh] Malin was very fast. I expected to get gone, but he put up a fight. I went for it, I had to. At this stage of the championship, you can’t leave anything on the table. Malin locked up, [Lorcan] Hanafin had a big slide on the exit, and I had the perfect opportunity, so I took it and got the lead down the hill and thought ‘great now I can get on with it.’
“I was trying to push hard but Malin was still there. I got a bit of a gap, so I relaxed a little bit as I felt that I’d keep dropping off if I carried on at the rate I was going. When they did get back to me, I turned it up a little bit, so it was good.
“It’s always nice to win a title. It’s bit weird to be a Rookie, I felt like I’ve done too many years of racing to be a Rookie, but it’s great. All these little bits help, and it has been a good year so far to wrap up the title and keep the championship hopes alive.”
Kiern Jewiss
G1 – 2, R1 – 3
G2 – 3, R2 – 1
Championship: 3 (95 points)
Rookie Championship: 1 (208 points)
“We were pretty strong in qualifying and race one was a little bit, not inconsistent, I just struggled and got caught up on Will [Martin]’s water. We lost lots of time but came back towards them at the end which was good.
“Race two [Josh] Malin was very fast. I expected to get gone, but he put up a fight. I went for it, I had to. At this stage of the championship, you can’t leave anything on the table. Malin locked up, [Lorcan] Hanafin had a big slide on the exit, and I had the perfect opportunity, so I took it and got the lead down the hill and thought ‘great now I can get on with it.’
“I was trying to push hard but Malin was still there. I got a bit of a gap, so I relaxed a little bit as I felt that I’d keep dropping off if I carried on at the rate I was going. When they did get back to me, I turned it up a little bit, so it was good.
“It’s always nice to win a title. It’s bit weird to be a Rookie, I felt like I’ve done too many years of racing to be a Rookie, but it’s great. All these little bits help, and it has been a good year so far to wrap up the title and keep the championship hopes alive.”
Harry King
G1 – 1, R1 – 1
G2 – 5, R2 – 4
Championship: 4 (87 points)
“It was a positive weekend. Throughout the free practices we were quickest, then pole position in qualifying by two tenths was great, and we converted that into a win and the fastest lap to score plenty of points this weekend. Winning by that sort of margin was pretty special, it’s just a shame it wasn’t the televised race, but I was glad
to get a win. I think we’re tied for highest number of wins in the championship, so that’s always a positive.
“It was a shame race two didn’t quite go to plan. We were up to third place and then I got pushed off at the chicane which put us on the back foot, and I made a bit of recovery drive back to fourth. By then the tyre pressures were too high for everybody, so the race settled down despite still looking pretty hectic, so I just had to be careful to bring it back in one piece. It was a strong weekend and I’m looking forward to Brands Hatch.”
Ryan Ratcliffe
G1 – 5, R1 – 4
G2 – 4, R2 – 2
Pro-Am Championship: 1 (107 points)
“In qualifying there were four consecutive yellows on four consecutive laps so that just really messed up my new tyre run. Race one I had a really, really good race from fifth up to the lead, got fastest lap, and started pulling away from the Pro-Am pack and catching the Pros. I was really happy with that only to be told that I started out with my box, so I got handed a 10 second penalty.
“Race two I made a pretty good start, and [Nathan] Harrison and I got stuck behind [Charles] Rainford and our pace was much better. I managed to get past Harrison doing a late breaking move down into turn one, but I think by the time I got past the gap that [Micah] Stanley had built in those first few laps there was no way I was going to catch him.
“We’re going into Brands with a quite a healthy lead. A lot of the pressure is off now, and I can just go in and enjoy it and as long as I get some pretty decent results it’s looking good. I don’t want to speak too soon but I’m happy with the results and I think performance-wise, in the races, it was my best and most enjoyable weekend in the Carrera Cup.”
Justin Sherwood
G1 – 1, R1 – 1
G2 – 1, R2 – DNF
Am Championship: 1 (121 points)
“Qualifying went really well and I managed to get a decent lap, just messed the chicane up a little, but it was still good enough for pole. Race one I got a clean start but Justin pushed me all the way, so I couldn’t relax. He dropped back a bit towards the end, but he was still pushing me and it was difficult, especially with the fluid down, as didn’t know how much to push, but I managed to get the win which was great.
“Second race I got a decent start again. I got a bit of a gap because the guys behind were battling and then the left tyre just let go at the Old Hairpin, spun me around and that was it for the day, so not a great end and obviously it’s closed things up in the championship.
“Brands is a great circuit and I enjoy driving around there. It’s going to be close between Justin I and it’s getting towards the end of October so I’m sure the weather will throw a curveball into it, but we’ll see how we get on and hopefully we’ll come away with the championship.”
Justin Armstrong
G1 – 2, R1 – 2
G2 – 2, R2 – 3
Am Championship: 2 (114 points)
“Free practice was quite good, and we had some good pace, so I was quite happy with the way the car was and that was the same all weekend. Qualifying didn’t quite go according to plan and traffic probably denied us being a bit further up than where we qualified.
“Race one I got a good start and managed to get into second then pretty much followed Justin but hadn’t really got the legs on him to do anything so finished second. My start wasn’t amazing for race two, we had some of the Pros behind us as well so it was a bit fraught for the first few laps, but we were sitting one-two.
“I made a small mistake out of Macleans and got hit at Coppice, which put me in the gravel, though I was lucky to get the car going. I bought the car home third which gave us points for second in the championship, which is good for me but, unfortunately for Justin that he had a DNF through no fault of his own which is awful. We’ll take that bit of luck, but I feel sorry for him because he’s been great all weekend as always.”
Team Parker Racing
Teams’ Championship: 1 (390 points)
Source. Tourque
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