Harvey takes Porsche Carrera Cup double at Snetterton
Tim Harvey scored a superb double victory in rounds 13 and 14 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Snetterton (Norfolk) over the weekend (28/29 July). Round 13
Despite constant pressure from Steven Kane and Michael Caine, Harvey didn’t put a wheel wrong in round 13 as he took his third win of 2007. The first race of the weekend was run at a tremendous pace, and the top five drivers were on the limit lap after lap. Even at the end of the race, less than four seconds covered five cars as Harvey headed Kane, Caine, Sam Hancock and James Sutton. But with the cars so evenly matched, overtaking would never be easy as Harvey led from the start.
It was mid-race before Harvey (Oxford) could establish any margin over Kane and even by half-distance the lead gap was only a second. But into the second half of the race, Harvey managed to edge clear by another half second before Kane (Northampton) brought the gap back to less than a second at the flag. “That’s what I’ve been looking for since the start of the year,” said Harvey after a mighty victory. “The top six are really on it, so I’m pleased to beat them fair and square.”
Kane, however, was really feeling the effect of illness and bravely finished the race despite feeling very groggy over the final laps. “The first six laps I was flying, then I went over a kerb and lost the splitter. After that I had understeer from hell!” Mid-race, Kane came under great pressure from Caine (Newmarket). However, when Caine attacked at the Esses he ended up losing ground to Kane and, in turn, quickly came under pressure from Hancock (Clapham).
Hancock had been behind Sutton (Barnet) on the opening lap, but a big move into Riches going into the second lap put Hancock fourth and he ran much of the race on the tail of Caine. “Everyone’s cars went off in different ways as the race progressed, and I had understeer that stayed to the end of the race,” said Hancock. While trying to challenge Caine, Hancock also had to be careful not to give Sutton the chance to make a move. “It’s just been hard work,” admitted Sutton. “The car doesn’t feel as good as it normally does.”
Jon Barnes (Southampton) led the chase of the leading quintet, but lost a little ground when trying to challenge Sutton on the second lap. He then ran a secure sixth until a broken gear lever forced him out with two laps to run.
Having led the pro-am battle from the start, Nigel Rice (Beverley) moved up to sixth place, although he eased his pace in the last two laps and allowed Andy Britnell (Hildenborough, Kent) to close in. Britnell had lost touch with Rice on the opening lap when Charles Bateman (Boston) went off at the Esses. “He came across the grass and nearly hit me and I had to come right off the throttle,” said Britnell. Once the gap to Rice was established, it stayed at around four seconds for much of the race.
With Bateman delayed, Pete Osborne (Worksop) went through to take third in pro-am as Bateman battled back to fourth from Steve Clark (Worcester) and guest racer Ian White (Yeovil).
Round 14
Tim Harvey completed a perfect weekend at Snetterton when he won round 14 on Sunday. With pole position and two race wins, it was a fine weekend for Harvey and Red Line Racing.
“We’ve found a problem with the dampers on the car that has hurt us in recent weekends, so it’s great to come back and win twice this weekend,” said Harvey. “I’m just aiming for more race wins over the rest of the season now,” he added.
Harvey got away well from pole to take an immediate lead from Kane and as early as the second lap Kane was struggling to match Harvey’s pace. “I lost the splitter through the chicane on the second lap and after that I was just hanging on, with big understeer everywhere,” said Kane.
He soon came under attack from the chasing pack and it was Hancock who starred by fighting through to second. First he bravely dived ahead of Caine round the outside into Riches, then edged ahead of Kane two laps later to take second. However, Harvey had already gone clear and Hancock was never able to close the gap to the race leader. For his double win, Harvey was confirmed as ‘RAC driver of the weekend’, while the Red Line Racing team was awarded the ‘RAC team of the weekend’ award.
Hancock, too, drove a fine race to score his best Carrera Cup result to date in second. “That felt like a long race,” said Sam. “It’s absolutely fantastic and I really owe this result to the Motorbase team.” Caine was the next to dive ahead of Kane and grabbed third at Russell on lap five and as the leading trio pulled clear, Kane was having all sorts of problems keeping his pursuers at bay.
Sutton and Rice were climbing all over the back of Kane’s car as the championship leader battled to hold on to fourth place. Meanwhile, Barnes had charged through from the back of the grid and made it a four-way battle. Sutton tried all ways to depose Kane, but could never quite make a decisive move and even dropped behind Barnes at one point after losing momentum while attacking Kane at Russell. However, with his tyres fading, Barnes could not hold fifth and Sutton re-took the place after some tremendous dicing.
“It was great to be battling with Steven and James, but I had big oversteer for the last five laps,” said Barnes. Rice, meanwhile, was right with the battle for fourth as he claimed pro-am spoils. “That was great fun; I had the best view of the action,” said Rice. Second in pro-am went to Britnell, but only after he withstood immense pressure from Bateman for much of the race. “I really had to work for that,” said Britnell. “He was mega on the brakes into the Esses.”
