Official Race Report from Paul Lawrence

Chamberlain on top at Croft

Wet or dry, it made no difference to Richard Chamberlain who dominated the opening two races in the Michelin Porsche Open Series at Croft over the weekend (17/18 April). Rupert Lewin (996 GT2R) gave valiant chase to the flying 935, but on this occasion, Chamberlain was the clear double victor.

Race one

Having extensively rebuilt his 935 over the winter, Chamberlain went into the first race still short on testing, but that didn’t dull his pace as he romped clear from the start. "That's the first time the car has run without a fault this year," he said after pulling clear at a rate of nearly two seconds a lap. However, it could have easily gone wrong for Chamberlain at the start. A marshal in the assembly area reminded him of the new lights system, with the start of the race now signalled simply by the red lights going out. " I wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t told me," admitted Chamberlain rather sheepishly!

Only Lewin was able to stay on the same lap as the charging Chamberlain, but there was plenty of close battling down the field. Veteran Brian Robinson (930) slotted into a secure third while Henry Firman got his season off to a cracking start with class two victory in his 911 GT3 Cup car. In class three, Paul Howell (993) was victorious in fifth place overall as David Botterill (944 Turbo) just beat Paul Livesey (993) for sixth. This was Botterill's first Open race in his ex-Chris Heeley car, one of four races during the weekend for the local racer.

In the new class four for the 944 brigade, Tim Bevan made the early pace only to spin his lead away at Sunny. That allowed Alex Eacock to take over the class lead, but Bevan came charging back into contention and was challenging for the lead on the final lap when he spun again at Sunny, this time bumping the tyres. Eacock duly took the class, while Bevan salvaged second in his slightly battered car. "It was very close; Tim was quicker on the day," admitted Eacock.

Race two

Heavy rain on Sunday morning left the track wet but beginning to dry slightly for the second race. Even early in the race, Lewin regretted not changing to intermediates before the start, feeling that the change of tyres would have given him a better chance of taking the fight to Chamberlain. However, instead Chamberlain stormed into a clear lead and was never troubled again as he rattled off the laps. "The car was better in the wet than it was in the dry yesterday," reckoned Chamberlain.

"That's the first wet race we’ve had with the car," said Lewin. "It was understeering; we should have gone for the intermediates! But Richard was driving very well," added Lewin.

Firman completed a perfect weekend with another class two victory, taking third overall after Robinson elected not to start due to a lack of wet weather tyres.

Botterill wrapped up a cracking weekend, which earned him four trophies in all, with second in class while Howell was a class-winning fifth despite a spin at Sunny.

Meanwhile, Eacock made it a class four double, having seen off the early challenge of Bevan. "I took all the anti-roll cars off, which was a mistake," reckoned Bevan. His view was underlined by a wild moment across the gravel at Clervaux, which ended with a brush with the tyres before he continued to finish second!

Henry Firman's story...

The first day back at school is always a bit strange, catching up with old friends and wondering what the year ahead will bring. So it was we arrived at Croft late on Friday night after a long drive via Wolverhampton to pick up a loan motor-home, our new one having only arrived in the UK the previous day and still to be registered and PDI checked. I had tested at Croft a couple of weeks previously and the signs were good. I had some times in mind to achieve and was fairly optimistic. The Friday test day was a wash out, so much so that at one stage I came in, the visibility and deep puddles being so bad. Not much was achieved save for agreeing wet settings, although they were pretty much as we expected.

Qualifying on Saturday morning saw the track very damp, but not severe enough for full wet tyres. I decided to bite the bullet and scrub in a new set of slicks. Even pulling out of the awning the tyres were struggling for traction at 5 miles an hour, previously I would have gone for the safe option and put on wet tyres but I was determined to press on. My plan was 5 laps to bed the tyres in nicely then 3 laps to set a time. Sadly after 3 laps the session was red flagged. When it resumed I tried to push the car enough to put some heat into the tyres, on my third lap the back end swung round at tower and I span infield fairly rapidly ! I wasn't too sure what had happened but re-joined the track only for the session to be red flagged again. One of the 944`s had put a load of oil down at tower and that was the cause of my troubles.

I was an odd feeling sitting on the second row of the grid for the first race. I`m still fairly new to all this and am more used to holding rank towards the rear of the field. Not only that but I had to be the favourite for class honours. It`s one thing to go out there with nothing to lose, quite another knowing you really ought to be the winner ! Dave Botterill is something of a Croft veteran having raced there on many occasions - The local press have even speculated they might name a corner after him next year, the Howells` 993 RSR supercup car was looking well, thankfully it was being driven by the slower father rather than the much faster and, so the ladies tell me, better looking son !! Paul Livesey was an unknown quantity, and again someone who had competed local championships at Croft in the past. In the end I managed a good start getting inside Rupert coming up to Clervaux, I thought about giving him a race but decided to back off and let him have the corner, well if the truth be known he shot off ahead, but just for a brief moment I was in second place!

Brian Robinson`s magnificent class one 911 turbo was behind me for the first few laps, I was determined not to just let him past, in the end he took me going into the complex, I took the place back at the hairpin then he took me back on the straight. Other than that an uneventful race. I could see Paul Howells behind me and kept a safe distance between us, that was all I needed to do. I wasn`t going to throw away my first class win and pottered round the track for the rest of the race.

The second race was definitely a full wet race. After two familiarisation laps there was confusion on the grid when the marshals tried to put me on row three and Paul Howells on row two. After hand waving and shouted instructions we basically sorted ourselves out and eventually the race got underway. Once again I shot off and once I could see I had half a lap on the next car took it fairly steady again to collect my second class win.

It sounds a bit arrogant and I genuinely do not mean it so, but whilst I was happy to get the results I didn`t come away from Croft with a warm glow. I mean no disrespect to my fellow competitors but there wasn`t really anyone challenging me and I didn`t push myself very hard over the weekend. All the people I race against are friends, Dave Botterill is a capable driver and knows the circuit well but his Pilot Sport cups were never going to be a match for my full race tyres, especially in the wet, (well done for an excellent drive in the club championship by the way), similarly whilst Paul Howells drove to his usual high standard and especially in the dry made sure I couldn`t totally relax, you would have to say my car had the advantage. The thing to do was probably to set myself personal goals lap time wise, but then that would risk potentially throwing away my inaugural class victories. It also didn`t help that the changing weather made the whole weekend a bit disjointed, just when you got used to the conditions they changed. I`m not a good enough driver to start resting on my laurels and accepting easy victory - I know this round was the exception and I will definitely have to pull my finger out if I stand even the remotest chance of doing battle with the more experienced GT3 drivers throughout the season. That said I feel happier in the car this year and was please with myself for deciding to chance the slicks in the damp qualifying.

I would also like to echo Richard`s welcome of the 944 drivers and their cars (though do please check your sump plugs next time !!). It has added renewed vitality to the series and some of the front running cars can expect to trophy hunt one or two of the class 3 cars throughout the season. It was strange having to work my way through the field in the GT3. Only last season I was one of the cars being overtaken by the likes of Richard and so I do know how it feels. Thank you all for letting me past and I shall endeavour to pass with courtesy. Certainly you shouldn`t have too much difficulty in seeing me coming !!

As a venue I think Croft is up there with the best of them, it`s a hell of a slog to get there but just remember that`s what the likes of Dave Botterill and the Redline racing boys have to do every time they come down to see us, so once a season it doesn`t hurt to make the effort. The organisational team behind the circuit do certainly try very hard as well.

Sorry if this a long report but it was an odd weekend in lots of respects. It was also my first race with Jaz looking after the car. I know the team well as they service a lot of road cars for us and so I had no doubts as to their abilities, the car ran without fault, everything was done in plenty of time and left me to get on with the racing. The years of experience working as a team certainly showed through with everyone knowing exactly what to do and when to do it. Steve was a source of inspiration and advice when it came to tyre choice and settings.

See you all at Silverstone where you`ll all have to pop into the (hopefully), new palace for a cup of tea. If you haven`t got your class two entries in yet pull your fingers out - if you leave it too long I might just get used to winning and not let you past !