- Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship celebrates 10th anniversary in 2012
- A packed field of 22 identical 450 hp 911 GT3 Cup race cars will thrill spectators in support of the British Touring Car Championship
- Youngest ever line-up of drivers on the grid, including 20-year old Daniel Lloyd, 2012 Porsche Carrera Cup Scholarship winner
- Three categories – Pro, Pro-Am1, Pro-Am2 – provides close competition throughout the grid
- The season kicks off at Brands Hatch, Kent, on March 31 – April 1
The 2012 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship will roar into life at Brands Hatch, Kent, this weekend with a superb 22 car field and an unprecedented number of young drivers bidding for glory. With a mix of raw talent and experience spanning the grid of identical 450 hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars, the stage is set for a fabulous tenth season for the Carrera Cup GB.
Across the eight promising young drivers in the Pro category, the average age is just over 23 and a half, giving the front of the Carrera Cup the youngest line-up in the ten year history of the Championship.
The 2012 season will also be the most cosmopolitan in the Carrera Cup GB story to date. As well as drivers from England, Scotland and Ireland, nations represented on the grid will include Australia, Belgium, Lithuania, Oman, Spain and Turkey.
Pro category Michael Meadows, Championship runner-up in 2011, heads the entry alongside his Redline Racing team-mate Glynn Geddie and they make a formidable pairing. Meadows (Banbury) had a stellar season in 2011 and missed the title by a whisker, while Geddie (Aberdeen) returns to the Carrera Cup in pursuit of unfinished business and the young Scot will be fiercely competitive.
Ranged against the two Redline racers will be a trio of young chargers from Yorkshire with Team Parker Racing. Sam Tordoff (Leeds) and Richard Plant (Sheffield) showed fine pace last year and are ready to capitalise on the experience of their first Carrera Cup seasons, while Carrera Cup Scholarship winner Daniel Lloyd (Huddersfield) joins the squad and has already shown strong form in testing.
Reigning Pro-Am1 Champion Jonas Gelzinis (Lithuania) has stepped up to the top category with his Juta Racing squad and has natural speed in abundance. Parr Motorsport fields Ben Barker (Cambridge) and Chris Dymond (Towcester) to give the team a very promising line-up.
Pro-Am1 Pro-Am1 will be just as competitive, as Kirkaldy’s Rory Butcher (Celtic Speed), Edinburgh’s Oly Mortimer (GT Marques) and West Kilbride driver Derek Pierce (Team Parker Racing) try to corner the glory for Scotland. Ahmad Al Harthy (Oman Air/Redline), Irish racer Michael Leonard (Team Parker Racing), Manchester’s George Richardson (Parr Motorsport) and Carrera Cup newcomer Victor Jimenez (Redline Racing) will be battling to stop the spoils going north.
Pro-Am2 The Pro-Am2 field continues the theme of a ‘race-within-a-race’ and Celtic Speed’s defending Champion, George Brewster (Edinburgh), will be the benchmark for the new season. However, Hampshire driver Keith Webster (Redline Racing) came very close to taking the 2011 title and showed tremendous form at the pre-season test day at Silverstone in mid-March.
Meanwhile, Yucel Ozbek (Turkey), Essex-based Australian Tania Mann, Tautvydas Barstys (Lithuania) and Norfolk racer Will Goff add to the strength of ProAm2, along with Belgian newcomer Jean Glorieux.
After qualifying at 11.20 on Saturday, round one will start at 16.05 on Saturday, with round two at 13.25 on Sunday. Round two will be broadcast live on ITV4 during the extensive BTCC programme.
Porsche Carrera Cup GB First run in 2003, the Porsche Carrera Cup GB is the fastest single marque racing Championship in Britain, and has established itself as the perfect platform for drivers looking to further develop their careers in GT sports car racing. With the identical 911 GT3 Cup race cars putting the emphasis squarely on driving talent, close racing is guaranteed.
The 911 GT3 Cup is the latest edition of the best-selling racing car of all time, having been built in a production series of more than 2,000 since 1998. The ‘Type 997’ 911 GT3 Cup racer is based on the iconic 911 GT3 RS road car, and powered by a rear-mounted 450hp 3.8-litre flat-six engine.
The 2012 Porsche Carrera Cup GB follows the BTCC, and features two races at each of the ten weekend meetings. The Championship is split into three categories – Pro, Pro-Am1, Pro-Am2 – with the top Pro division being where the overall title honours are decided. The Pro-Am1 category provides a good introduction to Carrera Cup for drivers new to the Championship according to their racing experience. Pro-Am2 offers competitors the flexibility to score points from their best seven race weekends, as well as the further attraction of a ‘race-within-a-race’ for individual glory.
