|
Phil Quaife marked his return to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB with
a pair of podium finishes at the season-opening double header at his home
circuit Brands Hatch, to leave him third in the drivers’
championship.
The Jota Sport driver survived slippery race 1 conditions to take fourth
overall and third in the Pro category, and drove a strong race 2 on Sunday,
despite suffering with understeer, to take third and his second podium of the
weekend.
Quaife started 4th for both races after a solid qualifying
performance on Saturday afternoon and lined up the weekend’s first race on dry
tyres on a damp, but drying track. I n a Safety Car-interrupted race, Phil enjoyed a sterling
battle with those on wet tyres, eventually overhauling Steve Rance for fourth
overall and third in the Pro category.
“It was a difficult, but thoroughly enjoyable race,” said Quaife. “It
was seriously slippery out there, but I think we made the correct decision to go
with dry tyres, despite the Safety Car periods causing us a lot of problems.
Every time it came out, we slowed right down and lost all the temperature in the
tyres. When it pulled in it was a matter of defending furiously from the guys on
wets until we could get the tyres back up to temperature and pull clear
again.”
Race 2 saw Quaife plagued with high speed, mid-corner understeer as he
battled to keep pace with leading trio Michael Caine, Tim Harvey and Tim
Bridgman. The leaders pulled out a small gap in the opening stages, but a
determined drive saw Quaife closing rapidly on Bridgman in the second half of
the race, before the Formula Palmer Audi champion had a huge off at Paddock Hill
Bend to hand Phil third place.
“Michael and the two Tims were very strong at the beginning of the race and
with the understeer I was suffering I had to drop back,” Phil revealed.
“However, what pleased me most was that my lap times were very consistent
throughout the race. When I looked at the data at the end there was only about
four tenths difference between my quickest and slowest laps. That consistency
meant I was able to catch the front three towards the end and I was only a
couple of car lengths behind when Tim Bridgman went off.”
32 points leave Quaife third in the drivers’ championship, behind Caine and
Harvey, and Jota Sport second in the teams’ championship on what was a very
satisfying weekend for all concerned.
“I really enjoyed the whole weekend,” Phil said. “I can’t complain about two
podium finishes and whilst there is still some more time for us to find, the
team have done a phenomenal job in a very short space of time. We’ll knuckle
down before the next round at Rockingham to perfect our set up, and I’m very
confident we can go there and be challenging for race wins.”
|
News 
