Porsche Racing

Bill Cameron and Kelvin Burt, in the Parr prepared and run Porsche GT3 proved to be the dominant force for the first round of the EERC Britcar race at Silverstone. Taking the class win and second overall the new driver pairing of rookie Bill Cameron and Kelvin Burt achieved more than anyone could have hoped at Parr Motorsport.

In a weekend of changeable conditions, Kelvin and Bill qualified in pole position on Saturday and went on to drive an outstanding two-hour race to take class honours. The team worked hard on finding an optimal set up for the difficult track conditions. The end result was a car that both drivers felt confident with.

The team is already looking forward to the second round of the series at Brands Hatch on the 15/16 April. You can follow progress at www.eerc.co.uk.

* Times *

qualifying
Position	Car Number	Class	Name	Car	Time
1	27	1	Cameron/Burt	Porsche GT3 Cup	1:25.304
2	5	1	Hirst/Wood	Vauxhall Astra DTM	1:26.746
3	62	2	Kershaw/Whight	Lotus Elise	1:27.266
4	22	1	Waterworth/Johnson	Dodge Viper	1:28.302
5	35	2	Coleman/Flux	Ferrari 360 Challenge	1:28.342
6	44	2	McCormick/Lockie	Ferrari 360 Challenge	1:28.571
7	1	2	Handkammer/Leslie	BMW M3 E36	1:28.666
8	25	1	Sabasttiani/Jones	ferrari F40	1:29.124
9	56	2	Cole/Cole	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	1:29.991
10	20	1	Harris/Greensall	Porsche GT3 Cup	1:30.757
11	76	3	Fenton/Gardiner	BMW M3 E36	1:31.513
12	13	2	Bullock/Harrison	Marcos Mantis	1:32.016
13	51	2	Firman/Nernberg	Porsche GT3 Cup	1:32.501
14	88	3	Clonis/Jenvey	Porsche 911 RSR	1:33.207
15	58	2	Scuffham/Randall	Lotus Elise	1:33.254
16	40	2	Back	Ferrari 360 Challenge	1:33.503
17	86	3	Grice/Wall	BMW M3 E36	1:34.314
18	30	1	Rodriiguez/Arnold	BMW M3 E36	1:34.995
19	90	3	George/Bennett	Peugeot 406 Coupe	1:35.507
20	43	2	Mercer/Fores	Marcos Mantis	1:35.843
21	75	3	Gamski/Robinson	Ferrari 355	1:36.052
22	79	3	Wyatt/Ray	BMW M3 E36	1:36.859
23	81	3	Scott/Greensall	BMW Mini 53	1:37.114

* Leslie Hammers Points Home *

David Leslie and Harry Handkammer picked up where they left off last year by taking the opening Britcar clash in the rebuilt BMW M£ at Silverstone.

On a drizzly afternoon, the pair saw off some faster opposition in the form of the colourful Vauxhall Astra DTM and the Parr Motorsport Porsche, each of which lacked the all-round driving ability of the 2004 category winners.

The race began dry, with Handkammer lining up seventh, though that effectively became sixth when the Neil and Geoffrey Waterworth Dodge Viper failed to take up its fourth-placed grid slot.

Kelvin Burt had put the Parr GT3 Cup entry on pole by more than a second, but Burt knew as well as anyone that he would be handling his car over to partner Bill Cameron, who was running in his very first race.

Burt lost the lead to the Astra before Copse. The DTM car was not equipped for refuelling and never planned to run for longer than an hour, but Steve Hirst’s early pace will surely make competitors try and keep a decent rig far away from the German flyer.

Burt had re-taken the lead by Priory, though the Astra was keeping the Porsche in sight until Hirst had it on the grass on the third lap. It was the first of several unforced errors that kept the car out of the hunt from then on, though it did take another brief spell at the front.

“I ran out of driving ability and fell off under braking,” admitted Hirst. “Ricky (Wood) went off too late after we changed, but the car was perfect.”

On lap four Burt’s 10-second lead was erased by the presence of the safety car. Barrie Whight had to ferry a flaming Lotus Elise back to the pits, where marshals extinguished the fiery motor.

Racing began again on lap 14, with Burt and Hirst (about to fall off again) pulling clear of Handkammer and Craig Cole’s Ferrari. Cole was doing well in what was his and his co-driving brother Elliott’s car racing debut.

Behind that was a battle between Philip Harris’s Porsche, Terry Coleman’s Ferrari and the pair of Topcats Marcos Mantis machines.

By lap 25 Burt’s lead had grown to 32 seconds – though Cole remained within striking distance of Handkammer. Another safety car period on lap 29 again undid most of Burt’s work and signalled a chance for most of the field to pit.

That meant driver changes and it was always going to be asking a lot to expect Cameron to hold off David Leslie for over an hour. The Porsche’s lead did not survive the first lap back under green, and fellow debutant Elliott Cole also slipped through immediately. Ian Flux was hunting down Cameron for third too, after the safety car had left him almost a lap down at the restart.

Leslie was barely threatened during the second half of the race, with a pleasant cushion to his name as rain came on lap 43. It was barely noticeable precipitation though, which could be why Jon Harrison got caught out at Woodcote corner on lap 45. Harrison walked away from the shunt, but he’s certainly beaten the Marcos’ left side about when it whacked the concrete wall. The incident triggered a third safety car, which meant it was as good a time as any for the leaders to come in and grab more appropriate rubber.

The order was unchanged after the pitstops and pace car period, though Flux had again lost a lap after overtaking Cameron. He was unable to catch the Porsche man either, as Cameron excelled in the wet and kept very close to Leslie’s times. He was rewarded at the very end by a gentle off and resultant pitstop from Cole, which gave Cameron a satisfying second place and the Class 1 victory.

The Harris/Nigel Greensall Porsche had had trouble fixing a wheel and lost several laps solving the problem, which meant John George’s strong charge past the remaining Mantis would give him and Phil Bennett fifth overall and the class victory.

Leslie cruised to a slightly early chequered flag as the noise curfew approached, saying afterwards: “We’ve got two drivers of similar place, and we stayed on the road while some of the others didn’t. It was a good solid race – just how we did it last year.”

Production S1 ran a separate race, as will be customary this year, and, although it was dry, this was an equally entertaining encounter.

Ultimately, nobody could live with the pole-sitting BMW of Nigel Stephens and Mark Smith, though had the sister car – started by the very same Smith and due to be handed over to David Cuff – not lost time in the garage on lap 17 with technical ailments, it would have mounted a serious challenge.

That meant that second position was settled in favour of Chris Nicholas, who was unable to prevent Stephens stretching his lead to almost 50 seconds just before the single round of stops.

The driver change led to further on-track excitement however.

Stephens was the last of the leaders to bring his car in and, when Smith took over, he found that Andreas Demetriou had been making substantial gains. There was a surge of interest as the gap dropped to the 13-second mark before Smith re-established a comfort zone and held it all the way to the end.

Solo runner Nick Kraemer brought his Ford Focus home third, two places ahead of the Class C-winning Mazda RXB of Natasha Firman and Mark Ticehurst. Firman had done well to guide the car to a tense debut win over a threatening Ben Salmon, despite a late spin and a sticking gearbox on the final three laps of the race.

Ian Flux was a surprised aggregate winner of the Britsports & Gold Arts contest, which was run over two sprints of 45 minutes either side of the lunch break.

A fifth and a second was just the kind of consistency Fluxie’s rivals could not muster. The Setters pairing won the first race but their Jade was feeling (and sounding) sickly in the second encounter and it finished a lap down.

Austin Kinsella took his radical SR8 to a convincing win in the second part, but overall victory was impossible after he had retired from the first event. He’s slowed suddenly exiting Abbey and got hit from behind by the unsuspecting Dominic Lesniewski, whose late-stopping strategy left him just two seconds short of the winning Jade before a nondescript second race effort in the afternoon.

by Richard Asher

* Results *

race results
Position	Car Number	Class	Name	Car	Time
1	1	2	Handkammer/Leslie	BMW M3 E36	1:56:55.547
2	27	1	Cameron/Burt	Porsche GT3 Cup	1:57:58.973
3	56	2	Cole/Cole	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	1:58:10.668
4	35	2	Coleman/Flux	Ferrari 360 Challenge	1:57:05.874
5	90	3	George/Bennett	Peugeot 406 Coupe	1:57:21.011
6	43	2	Mercer/Fores	Marcos Mantis	1:57:56.757
7	44	2	McCormick/Lockie	Ferrari 360 Challenge	1:57:24.047
8	86	3	Grice/Wall	BMW M3 E36	1:57:18.245
9	51	2	Firman/Bernberg	Porsche GT3 Cup	1:57:57.726
10	75	3	Gamski/Robinson	Ferrari 355	1:58:23.415
11	58	2	Scuffham/Randall	Lotus Elise	1:57:10.416
12	40	2	Back	Ferrari 360 Challenge	1:57:45.064
13	79	3	Wyatt/Ray	BMW M3 E36	1:57:21.755
14	76	3	Fenton/Gardiner	BMW M3 E36	1:57:45.624
15	20	1	Harris/Greensall	Porsche GT3 Cup	1:58:04.063

Courtesy of Autosport Magazine.

www.eerc.co.uk