Westbrook wins Donington opener

By fending off a race-long challenge from Tim Harvey, Westbrook claimed the top step of the podium and scored his second Porsche victory in a week.

“If I’d made one mistake he’d have got me,” admitted Westbrook (Red Line Racing) as Harvey (Team RPM) chased him home. Damien Faulkner (Team Parker Racing) completed the podium finishers after battling ahead of team mate Jason Templeman (Team Parker Racing).

From the opening lap, it was Westbrook leading Harvey, Templeman and Faulkner, although a fast-starting Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) edged briefly ahead of Faulkner. Initially, Westbrook pulled a few yards clear as Templeman challenged Harvey. Then, by breaking the lap record three times, Harvey worked back onto Westbrook’s tail.

“It was the same old story - looking in my mirrors after the first corner!” said Westbrook. However, into the second half of the race he was just able to edge away from Harvey to win by 1.3s. “That’s a good start to the Carrera Cup season,” said Westbrook, who had won the Porsche Supercup race in Bahrain seven days earlier.

“It was a case of deja-vue, really,” said Harvey. “We’ll make a little set-up change for the second race,” he promised in his bid to topple Westbrook. Faulkner spent several laps working to find a way ahead of Templeman, but dived through to third under braking for the Chicane on lap 10. However, by then, Westbrook and Harvey were out of reach.

Templeman slipped away in fourth, struggling for rear grip in the second half of the race, and was being caught at the finish by Dan Eagling (Porsche Cars/Team Autosport). “I was a little cautious in the early laps, but from mid-race on I was really happy with my performance,” said Eagling, who raced well to move ahead of Rice.

Having lost the splitter from the front of his car on the opening lap, Rice was always going to struggle for front-end grip and was briefly edged back to seventh by Jason Young (Red Line Racing). But Rice then re-passed his team mate to claim sixth place as Emmanuel Crouvisier (Team RPM) completed the top eight.

Provisional results (15 laps):
1  17m46.470s 
2 Tim Harvey (Team RPM) 17m47.807s 
3 Damien Faulkner (Team Parker Racing) 17m56.688s
4 Jason Templeman (Team Parker Racing) 17m57.682s
5 Dan Eagling (Porsche Cars GB) 17m59.457s
6 Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) 18m05.517s 
7 Jason Young (Red Line Racing) 18m05.642s 
8 Emmanuel Crouvisier (Team RPM) 18m17.525s
9 David Ashburn (Trackspeed) 18m24.138s 
10 Stephen Shanly (Red Line Racing) 18m26.233s

Photo: Tunc Sengun - © Motorspor.com