Rockingham next for Carrera Cup contenders

The second weekend in the 2008 Porsche Carrera Cup GB will take teams and drivers to the spectacular Rockingham Motor Speedway near Corby in Northamptonshire this weekend (12/13 April).

It may have taken longer than he wanted it to, but Michael Caine's first win in the Carrera Cup GB at Brands Hatch two weeks ago was a breakthrough result. Caine (Newmarket) and Team Parker Racing were the class of the field at Brands and a double victory sends him to Rockingham with the early season championship lead as the Carrera Cup heads into races three and four.

But Caine knows that the opposition is strong, both from within the team and from outside. Tim Harvey (Oxford), the most successful driver in the history of the championship, bagged a brace of seconds at Brands for Red Line Racing and will want to score his first win of the season.

So too, will Caine's team mate Tim Bridgman (Stansted, Essex). Brands was a tough weekend for the former single-seater champion and a hefty shunt in the second race was not the start to the year he wanted. But the pace was clearly there, and Tim will come back strongly this weekend. Charles Bateman (Boston, Lincs), racing alongside Caine and Bridgman at Team Parker Racing, will be chasing his first podium since stepping up into the Pro class for his 2008 campaign.

Two more drivers with serious ambitions to win races and challenge for the title are Jota Sport teammates Phil Quaife (Tonbridge) and Sam Hancock (London). Quaife was on the podium at Brands, while Hancock was very unlucky to be knocked out of the opening race after making a bold call on tyre choice. The team is new to the Carrera Cup, but is quickly finding front-running pace.

In the Pro-Am1 category for the non-professional drivers, Dartford's Tony Gilham (ReDesign Racing) has taken the early points' lead after a strong debut weekend at Brands. However, defending champion Nigel Rice (Beverley, East Yorks) will be tough to beat as he makes up points lost by a spin into the gravel in the opening race at Brands. Fergus Campbell (Wandsworth) runs alongside Rice at Red Line Racing following a strong start to his season at Brands.

Meanwhile, single-seater ace Dean Smith (Birmingham) will join the grid in one of the guest entries from Porsche Cars Great Britain and could prove a strong contender even though his experience to date has all been in single-seaters.

After qualifying on Saturday morning, the opening race will be 10am on Sunday with the second race scheduled for 2.40pm. The second race is set to feature in ITV4's live coverage of the BTCC action in a programme running from 12.30pm to 5.30pm.