|
 |
Championship
Lead Continues to Grow for Faulkner
|
|
|
Two second places were
enough for Damien Faulkner to increase his Porsche Carrera Cup GB championship
lead as the season reached its halfway point at Croft today (Sunday
July 16th). The Team SAS driver now leads the chase for the championship
by six points from Tim Harvey.
Having suffered a puncture in qualifying
the Donegal driver was on the back foot from the start
but recovered to set the third fastest time of the session just 0.02
of a second off a front row start. The puncture had ruined Faulkner's
first run of the session, which is traditionally the one where the quickest
times are set, so he was pleased with both his performance and that
of the team who made short work of finding and rectifying the problem.
Pole
for race one went to Danny Watts of Red-line Racing, who as a guest
driver is not a contender for the title, so Faulkner's goal was simply
to finish ahead of second placed starter Harvey, with the race win not
being the most important thing from a championship stand point.
Following some intensive mid-week work on race starts
the reigning champ made his best getaway of the season
to immediately put pressure on Harvey. The Irishman pressurised
his rival for thirteen laps before creating an opportunity
on lap fourteen, into the tricky 'tower' corner, where
he disposed of Harvey with the best move of the race.
By this time Watts was long gone and Faulkner settled
for building a gap over Harvey and increasing his championship
lead.
Starting second for race two Faulkner again got
a good start but with the outside line not the place
to be at the first turn he fell into line behind Watts
to protect his second place. With Harvey following closely
Faulkner did not have the pace to challenge Watts and
again settled for second and another increase in his
margin over Harvey.
Speaking after race two Faulkner said, "That
was a tough weekend. We were quickest in mid week testing
and looked in good shape for the weekend but the puncture
in qualifying really knocked us back. I am extremely pleased with the results
of both races as I have finished ahead of Tim (Harvey) both times. This is not
an easy place to pass so I was delighted to be able to get by him in race one
which set me up to finish ahead of him again in race two. Myself and Team SAS
have the same goal this season, which is to win our second Porsche Carrera Cup
title so with Danny (Watts) not in contention for the championship two second
places behind him will do very nicely.The Porsche Carrera Cup GB now moves on
to Donington Park for rounds 11 & 12 on July 29th and 30th. |
|
|
