Hot Stuff from the All Porsche Trophy at Donington!

Donington was sweltering under a heatwave as the CALM All Porsche Trophy (CAP) arrived for the second meeting of the year, with a 30 strong entry ranging from 924 to Cayman Cup spread across the familiar 5 classes. CAP debutantes were Chris Mills in his stunning white 996, Ben Hall joining the Boxster throng, father and son duo Phil and Nick Goldberg in a 968, this being Nick’s racing debut, and Martin Mason in yet another Boxster.

Qualifying

It was a familiar face on pole, with Warren Allen’s Gulf liveried Cayman a second clear of Chris Mills’ 996, and Richard Neall in his 997, these 3 SP1 cars being followed by the first of the SP2 runners Andrew Duce in his Boxster and Grant Jackson in his Cayman. The rest of the top 10 was made up of a string of closely matched Boxsters led by Tony Levy.

SP3 was very close at the front, with Dan Crego in his 968 just half a second ahead of the evenly matched Steve Lloyd and Nick/James Carey 968s.Kenn Van Hauen had the mighty supercharged 911 up into the lower realms of the midfield, while SP4 was down to just 2 cars after a flurry of last minute withdrawals, but these 2 promised a real scrap with Andy Whiting’s 924S and the Aiden/Andrew Crockett 924 split by just 0.1 sec.

Race 1

Warren Allen led at the end of the opening lap from Chris Mills who had made a great start and took the initial lead. Richard Neall was in 3^rd and Grant Jackson 4^th a couple of seconds back. All four soon settled into a rhythm, and finished in the same order on the road, although Chris was later penalised 30 seconds for a non-working transponder dropping to a class 4^th.

All the action was behind this quartet: Andrew Duce and Will Curtler had a fine battle for the SP2 class win, tied together throughout and finishing less than a second apart at the flag with Mike Curtler completing the podium having had his own battle with the SP3 968 of Dan Crego, and both part of an ever changing SP3/SP2 group at various times comprising the Boxsters of Tom McHugh, Stuart Warner, Ant Sahota, Adam Warner, Jamie McHugh, plus the 968s of James Carey and Steve Lloyd and Nick Rinylo’s fabulous 911.

After a feisty drive Tom McHugh finished a fine 4^th just 0.3 seconds from the podium, while Dan Crego wrapped up the SP3 class ahead of James Carey and Steve Lloyd, who almost dead-heated for the remaining class places. It was a disappointing race for Tony Levy in his Boxster, qualifying in a very competitive 6^th overall, but completing lap one 20 seconds down in 24^th.

He charged through the field to an eventual class 8^th, and setting 3^rd fastest class lap.

Aiden Crockett took a lonely SP4 win after Andy Whiting opted not to start after an electrical problem surfaced in the Assembly area. The race finished a couple of minutes early, having been red flagged with Ant Sahota stranded in a dangerous position in the gravel after a braking issue.

Race 2

Richard Neall led after the first lap, closely followed by Warren Allen, a fast starting Grant Jackson and Chris Mills completing the SP1 front runners. By lap 2 Warren had taken his customary lead, extending it to 20 seconds by the end. Richard was comfortably second from Grant and Chris, until Chris passed Grant’s Cayman, rapidly closing on the #17 997 and challenging for second until pitting on lap 8 into retirement, promoting Grant back to third, these positions being held to the end.

The SP2 win was taken by Andrew Duce in his 987 Boxster, this time finishing well clear of Will Curtler and Stuart Warner who had an excellent run to the class 3^rd as part of a group of 5 battling Boxsters plus Nick Carey’s and Steve Lloyd’s 968s, all led by Dan Crego’s 968 in a frantic scrap for both SP2 and SP3 positions.Again the race finished early due to a  stranded car in a dangerous position, and when the dust had settled Dan took the SP3 class win from Steve Lloyd and Nick Carey, although Nick was ahead on the road and setting fastest lap, but penalised for track limits dropping him to the class third.

After his podium winning heroics in race 1, it was disappointment for Tom McHugh, retiring after the first lap. Andrew Crockett and Kenn van Hauen both finished, taking the SP4 and Invitation classes respectively.

Dan Crego won Driver of the Day for his “defensive” efforts in holding off the Boxster hordes to make 6^th overall in race 2, Chris Mills won the award for the Best Turned Out car with his 996, and Andy Whiting received the coveted “Ryan’s Best Mate” prize for selflessly withdrawing from both races as his intermittent electrical problem would have caused problems for everyone else had it occurred during the race.