A couple of metres wide at over 100mph turned a stunning weekend at Silverstone into a disappointing weekend, but also made sure the fire is really in the belly for the final round at Brands Hatch.
A couple of metres wide at over 100mph turned a stunning weekend at Silverstone into a disappointing weekend, but also made sure the fire is really in the belly for the final round at Brands Hatch.
That couple of metres was all it took for Porsche Carrera Cup GB officials to rule that I had run wide at the first corner in the second race of the day. That meant my hard-fought second place was hit by a five-second time penalty and became a sore seventh.
If I had been able to add the second place points to my third place in race one, I would be right in the mix to finish second in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB title race.
Second place is still on, but it will be much harder. Rest assured, both I and the Celtic Speed team will be pulling out all the stops
to get the job done.
The rules are the rules and I accept that. It just seems harsh and inconsistent to look at one corner where no real advantage was gained when other drivers consistently had all four wheels off-track at other corners where it did matter.
Maybe they were just a little bit more streetwise than me, or just lucky.
It was a weekend that produced the usual highs and lows and it looked as if it might be over before it really started when the car developed an engine problem as I went out for qualifying. The team did a great job to spot it before I left pit lane and pushed me back to the garage. They then did even better to work their magic and fix it in time for me to complete the second half of the session. Despite the engine issues we managed to qualify fifth for race one and fourth for race two. We were pretty pleased as a team to have pulled that out of the bag because I knew that put me in a position to fight for podiums.
I got a good start in the first race and passed Jonas Gelzinas at turn one for fourth, then dived passed Michael Meadows to take third at turns two and three. Michael kept the pressure on until the chequered flag but I kept it all together and was delighted to bring home a podium.
We knew the car very quick but still wasn’t perfect, and the Celtic Speed boys were working well to get around the problems and made some small adjustments to the set up for the
second race.
I felt I just had to go for it in race two and be aggressive. I started from fourth and took James Sutton on the inside off the line then I hassled Jonas Gelzinis for the next five laps. I managed to get the cut-back on him as we went on to the main straight and passed him into the first corner. The car felt better and better as the race went on so I went for the win and I managed to reel in Michael Meadows in the lead but he just held on by 0.4 sec. Then we were hit with the penalty which was so disappointing after such a tough race. We had the pace and took the fastest lap but the podium just wasn’t to be.
But it does mean that we are fired up for Brands Hatch. There will be nothing left in the locker.
© Celtic Speed 2026
