Tom Sharp has closed to within four points of the top four in the 2016 Porsche Carrera Cup GB championship standings following a superb double podium finish at Knockhill this past weekend (13/14 August).
Sharp and his family run IDL Racing squad showed impressive pace from the off around the picturesque Scottish circuit, finishing in the top three on the timesheets in official testing on both Tuesday and Friday ahead of the race weekend.
The 25 year old almost replicated that performance in qualifying on Saturday as he placed his Porsche 911 fourth on the grid for both races, with his best effort of 50.105s being less than two tenths of a second off a front row start.
Sharp was immediately into the podium positions at the start of Sunday’s opening race though, with a fast start allowing him to drive around the outside of Alessandro Latif heading through SEAT Curve for the first time.
Sharp would go on to maintain third position for the remainder of the race, soaking up some early pressure well before expertly negotiating the backmarkers around the tight and twisty circuit on his way to a fourth podium finish of the campaign – with number five being added later in the day.
Another brilliant launch off the line in race two would see Sharp move straight past Latif for third place once again, which then set him up for one of the battles of the season so far as he duelled it out with Tom Oliphant for the final podium position throughout the 31 lap contest.
The duo provided plenty of action for the trackside crowd as they swapped the position on multiple occasions, with Sharp eventually edging out his adversary – though not before they’d spectacularly ran side-by-side down Duffus Dip on the penultimate lap.
Sharp’s excellent points haul from the weekend means the reigning Rookie Class champion now heads into the final two meetings of the season right in contention for fourth in the championship – the action continuing with another visit to Silverstone next month (17/18 September).
Tom Sharp: “I didn’t really come into this weekend expecting that much, so to come away with two third place finishes has blown away all my expectations. It’s been a fantastic weekend, and I can’t thank the team enough for all their hard work this week.
“The second race in particular was really good fun. Races like those are the reason we started racing, and as it becomes more competitive you lose that aspect slightly as you focus on the results and finding pace, so it was great to have a close battle like that and come out on top.
“To be consistently getting some trophies and champagne at the moment is really good, and crucially that means we’re getting some good points on the board. It shows we’ve got some good pace in the car, and the last two circuits at Silverstone and Brands Hatch GP are ones that should favour us.”
Source. Simon Paice Media/Photo. James Lipman/Porsche
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