Posted

08 August 2012

Rory's views on the weekends race.

Rounds 13/14 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB were certainly action packed and we scored a podium finish in front of our home crowd. But that only tells a small part of the story as it  shaped up to be a difficult and very frustrating weekend which pushed us as a team.

Qualifying was tough and proved really difficult to get any space to put together a clear lap. Just when you thought you had a flying lap, someone would be slowing down to get their own space and that compromised your lap time. But there are no excuses, I know the place well enough but it just shows how tight the competition is in the Porsche Carrera Cup. A tenth of a second can drop you three or four places on the grid. We secured a challenging starting position of sixth for race one and fifth for race two.

I made a good start in race one and passed Daniel Lloyd for fifth heading in to Clark curve and pushed to limit to try and stay with Gelzinas and Tordoff but I could feel my rear tyres going off very early and I was settling for the position with a good gap back to sixth. The last thing I needed was the safety car to be deployed…

I tried to get a good exit at the Hairpin but I had a big slide on the restart. That gave Daniel Lloyd the chance to get right in behind me. As we came over the crest, Andy Meyrick made a move on Daniel and he out braked himself. He got past Daniel but clipped me going into the first corner and the damage was done, spinning me off down Duffus dip and in to the path of Richard Plant. Sadly he was caught up in the accident and we were both forced to retire with damage. Not the result we were hoping for on home territory.

The stewards looked at the incident and Meyrick was excluded from the race.

I was so worried that the weekend was over as the front took a big hit. We knew we had to make the car totally structurally safe or else Porsche would not let us out. The team had to rebuild the car, but they also found time to make some adjustments to the set-up. It was an amazing job and we gathered a big crowd as they worked away!!

But we made it back on to the grid. I was starting in fifth, but the first lap was so hectic. There were cars going off everywhere and there was radiator fluid spilled on the track, but I had a real fire in my belly and took advantage of the tricky conditions. I made the cut back on Gelzinas at Scotsman corner on lap two to take third and then darted up the inside of Lloyd at the hairpin on lap three which promoted me up to second. Ben Barker was ahead in the lead and the safety car was deployed for a beached car. The car was on rails and at the restart I challenged Barker for the first few laps but he slowly opened up a lead and took the victory.

I was taken aback by the noise and flag waving from the Scottish fans as I ended the second race of the Porsche Carrera Cup at Knockhill in second place.  There is no better feeling than standing on the podium in front of your home crowd. The sea of faces and the cheers at the podium was something else even if the “See You Jimmy” wig left me a little red-faced!!

I was just so happy to have got a result for the team who had worked so hard to repair the car and for my sponsors, most of which only get one real chance a year to see me and I was on the podium. I felt it showed what we are like as a team and what kind of skills we have. Hopefully we have made them proud of the fact that they support me and Celtic Speed.