Sutton scores in Porsche Mobil1 Supercup at British GP

James Sutton was one of the stars of the race as three drivers from the Porsche Carrera Cup GB raced at the British Grand Prix meeting at Silverstone on June 21 as invited racers in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup race.

Carrera Cup GB title contenders Tim Harvey (Oxford) and James Sutton (Barnet) raced with Red Line Racing, while Aaron Scott (Wolverhampton) drove the car of Tommy Dreelan for Celtic Speed. With a place on the overall podium, Sutton was the best of the three and claimed a superb result against the cream of European racers. Meanwhile, Harvey clinched a strong eighth place and Scott finished 14th.

Sutton signaled his tremendous pace around the Silverstone GP circuit by qualifying third fastest in his 420bhp 911 GT3 Cup race car, just behind established Supercup aces Rene Rast and Jeroen Bleekemolen; demonstrating the close competition that is a feature of Supercup and Carrera Cup races, less than a third of a second covered the top three.

“Third on the grid is a decent result, and one I hadn’t really expected," said Sutton after Saturday's qualifying session. "I wasn’t too far off pole position. My lap was good and I’m very happy of course. Hopefully I can turn it into a good race result."

Sure enough, Sutton maintained his pace on race day in front of a sell-out Grand Prix crowd of 100,000 fans. The lead battle was a mighty contest between Rast and Bleekemolen and it was only on the penultimate lap that Rast managed to battle ahead. However, Sutton ran with them the whole race in a hugely impressive drive to earn a place on the podium. "I got the best seat in the house today and saw the fantastic duel between René and Jeroen," he said. "I'm thrilled that I could match the pace of the front-runners and I'm very pleased with third place."

Harvey also had an excellent race and battled his way from 11th on the grid to eighth at the flag, finishing on the tail of Supercup front-runner Jiri Janak.