Team Parker Racing sealed a remarkable three of the four available championships in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at the weekend (October 23-25), and is set to claim the fourth at the final round in November.
Things started on a high at Snetterton, as Justin Sherwood claimed back-to-back Am championships, as well as making it three in a row for the team, with his eighth win of the season in race one and followed up his success with another victory in race two.
Dominant throughout the season, as well as helping to increase viewing figures with his flat-out, exciting driving, Harry King wrapped up the Drivers’ Championship title on Sunday, taking pole position and victories in both races, his tenth wins in 14 races so far.
Those wins, coupled with a pair of second-place finishes for Josh Webster, in Pro, and Justin Armstrong, in Am, also meant that the Teams’ Championship went the way of Team Parker Racing, leaving just the Pro-Am contest to be settled next time out.
In that battle, Esmee Hawkey could have claimed the title, but two wins for team-mate Ryan Ratcliffe means that he left Norfolk 23 points behind, with a maximum of 24 on offer at Brands Hatch in November.
On the British Touring Car Championship side of the team, Stephen Jelley was left frustrated at a weekend he felt didn’t reflect the potential that he had in his BMW 125i M Sport. Qualifying 15th, he climbed up to tenth in race one but contact from a rival damaged the car, which meant starting from the rear of the field for race two. Battling the problem, he made up ten places to finish 17th, but was pushed onto the grass in race three, costing any chance of a points finish.
Team Parker Racing will next be on track in the British GT Championship’s three-hour Silverstone 500 on November 7/8, while the BTCC and PCCGB return to action at their respective season finales at Brands Hatch over a busy weekend of November 13-15, the same weekend as the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup comes to a conclusion with the 1000km Paul Ricard.
Harry King
“It was another perfect points weekend which was more than enough to secure the championship. I am delighted with the result; it’s been a massive team effort this year and Josh and myself have P1 and P2 and the drivers in the other classes have also dominated. It is a real honour and a privilege to represent Porsche as its GB Junior Driver and this is the best way to repay them, Octane Finance, Entire Race Engineering, St James’ Club Antigua, and 1BR.”
Josh Webster
“It was a fantastic weekend for the whole team. Me and Harry have dominated all weekend, so massive congratulations go to him for taking the championship in his first year, like I did many moons ago! Obviously, part of me is gutted I didn’t win, but it was clear early on that he had the pace. I pushed the wheels off the car and couldn’t have driven quicker, so it’s one of those things. I am really happy the team won the title and Justin Sherwood won Am, and it goes to Brands for Esmee and Ryan, so its Team Parker domination and I am really proud of everyone.”
Ryan Ratcliffe
“The pace is getting stronger and stronger every weekend. I was really happy getting out of the car at the end of race one having had the challenging damp conditions. I had an amazing start which really helped me, and I think I passed four of the Pro drivers so that set us up well. The tyres were overheating like mad at the end of the race and the pressures were through the roof, but I was pleased to get the win. In race two it was dry, but I was still feeling good in the car, Esmee got close a couple of times, but I was able to control the pace and make it two wins out of two.
Justin Sherwood
“We had tricky track conditions for race one but the set up was great. I bogged down at the start and had to avoid a stalled car and two people crashing, but recovered and followed Justin Armstrong. I just managed to slip down the inside into the second hairpin for a Team Parker Racing one-two, and with that we won the championship. I had a good start to race two but had to back out as Ross Wylie stalled in front of me. Justin got past me, but I managed to get around the outside of him to retake the lead. It was a great end to the day with another class win and congratulations to Harry for a great win. I’d like to thank the team because we’ve had a great car all season.”
Stephen Jelley
“It’s frustrating really. We deserved a bit more, but we had mechanical problems to the power steering, caused by damage in race one, which ruined race two. We found it just before we went out, so started at the back and came through a bit but had the problems throughout the race so we couldn’t build on our race one result. In race three I got abused a bit coming through. We couldn’t quite crack the times of the top ten, so we need to have a bit of a rethink. Brands Indy is a strong circuit for us so we’ll go there and see if we can perform.”
Source. Torque/Photo. Porsche
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