Damien Faulkner endured a very tough time at Donington Park in the latest rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB on Saturday and Sunday (July29th/30th), but came through it with another increase in his championship lead.

The SAS International car of Faulkner's came home second on Saturday and with the addition of a bonus point for fastest lap added three points to his championship lead. On Sunday the Donegal man finished third but only after an incident with championship rival Tim Harvey which saw Faulkner pushed out of second place. The incident is under investigation and the result will not be declared until the next event two weeks from now at Snetterton. Whatever the outcome of race two, the reigning champion will still increase his series lead by a minimum of one point.

Following qualifying it was evident that Faulkner was in for a tough weekend as all of the Team Parker with SAS cars were suffering from a handling problem which was wearing their tyres extremely quickly. The number one car of Faulkner overcame the difficulties to finish a creditable fourth but he was unhappy to be so far down the grid.

Some changes to set up before Saturdays race improved things slightly for the Irish driver who made a good start to jump straight into 2nd place ahead of Harvey, his only real championship rival. Faulkner pressurised leader Danny Watts for the first half of the race and built a big gap over Harvey before his tyres again began to blister. On the advice of his team he backed off and let Watts get away in order to ensure he finished ahead of Harvey to once again inch further ahead in the title race.

Starting second for Sunday's race Faulkner held his place away from the lights. As the cars entered the very quick 'Old Hairpin' on lap two however Harvey ran into the rear of the SAS International car pushing it wide to take over in second place. Faulkner recovered to hold on to third and spent the remainder of the race glued to Harvey's bumper but could not find a way past over the remaining laps. After the race Team Parker protested Harvey's driving but with video footage un-available due to the event running extremely late, the result can not be declared until the championship re-convenes at Snetterton in two weeks time.

"This has been a very tough weekend" Faulkner said on Sunday evening, "It was obvious after qualifying that set up wise we have lost a bit of ground to our rivals over the last couple of events. The team worked well to keep me informed of the race situation on Saturday and then we came up with a solution to the problem before Sunday's race but I am unhappy that again I could not really fight for the race win. We have a big challenge ahead of us to get the car sorted but we are looking forward to that challenge and I hope we can get back to winning at Snetterton. Obviously I am not happy with the outcome of race two as the incident with Harvey made a big difference championship wise. Hopefully we will get second place back but if not we will still come away from Donington with an increased points lead."

The Porsche Carrera Cup GB now moves on to Snetterton for rounds 13 & 14 on August 12th and 13th.