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Eastwood takes maiden victory, Cammish sets new recordPorsche Carrera Cup GB: Brands Hatch GP, rounds fifteen and sixteen - race reports

After rounds 13 and 14, Dan Cammish (Redline Racing) became only the third driver in Porsche Carrera Cup GB history to secure back-to-back championships. At Brands Hatch after rounds 15 and 16, he became the first ever driver to win 12 races in a season, a win in round 16 a fitting way to end his year and establish a dominant legacy.

Looking to begin his own chapter in the history of the championship was Charlie Eastwood (Redline Racing), the 2016 Rookie champion tasting the champagne of victory for the first time and underlining a strong debut season.

The final championship of the 2016 was won in the last race, fifth in round 16 enough to secure Tautvydas Barstys (Juta Racing) the Pro-Am2 title.

Round fifteen

After the difficult conditions in qualifying, Charlie Eastwood converted his hard-earned pole position into a maiden Porsche Carrera Cup GB victory on a dry track.

Leading away from the rolling start, the Porsche GB 2016/2017 Scholar was shadowed by the returning Daniel Lloyd (IN2 Racing) all the way to the flag, despite an early safety car period bunching up the field. In the end a delighted Eastwood’s winning margin over the 2012/2013 Scholar was just over a second:

“It’s unbelievable and has been a long time coming. We’ve been chipping away at it all year. We got a good lap in qualifying and controlled it away from the lights. We had Dan Lloyd between us and the pack behind, which gave me some breathing space as well. Going into next year it gives us such a boost to hit the ground running.”

The second row was shared by Dan Cammish and Dino Zamparelli (GT Marques), the two season-long rivals battling almost every time into Druids. Zamparelli made a pass for third on the first lap at the hairpin before being repassed by Cammish at the same corner on lap six. The scrap was decided just a few laps later when the 2016 champion made a rare error and spun down to 12th. Zamparelli was able to hold onto his third place despite a late race charge from Tom Oliphant (Team Redline).

Oliphant had made his way through the field to challenge for his second successive podium, making a signature move around Alessandro Latif (GT Marques) which left Latif focusing on his successful defence of fifth from Tom Sharp (IDL Racing) who recovered well to claim sixth.

Also recovering well was Cammish, the double champion taking fastest lap by over half a second to finish in eighth. Just five seconds behind was Euan McKay (IN2 Racing), the 2016 Pro-Am1 champion back to his winning ways with an impressive Karl Leonard returning to the championship to split the McKay brothers on the track.

However, as a guest driver Leonard may have taken the champagne, but the second place points went to Dan McKay (IN2 Racing) and those for third to Sean Hudspeth (Parr Motorsport), which left the championship battle for second in Pro-Am1 to be decided in the final round.

Also to be decided in the final round was the battle for the Pro-Am2 title. Mark Radcliffe (Intersport Racing) took a strong win to reduce the points gap slightly, but leader Tautvydas Barstys (Juta Racing) emerged in second place with eight points in hand over Peter Kyle-Henney (Parr Motorsport) who fought his way onto the podium and took fastest lap in the process.

Round sixteen

In a fitting finish to the 2016 season, champion Cammish lined up on pole position with season-long challenger Zamparelli next to him. The two protagonists fell into line astern at the start and even a mid-race safety car period could not prevent Cammish from taking a dominant win to make Porsche Carrera Cup GB history - 12 wins in a single season.

Zamparelli had to make an early defence from Eastwood and Jonas Gelzinis (Juta Racing), the Lithuanian muscling his was past the round 15 winner at Westfields to take third. Behind, Lloyd looked at taking the opportunity to follow Gelzinis through, but with two wheels on the grass slid back into fifth.

In a move that was almost a replay, Eastwood went on to take Gelzinis back at Westfields, with Lloyd again thwarted in his bold efforts to capitalise. Oliphant came out ahead in a race-long battle with Sharp for sixth, while Stephen Jelley (Team Parker Racing) managed to slip past the second-placed Rookie Lewis Plato (Team Redline) for seventh.

In Pro-Am1, Dan McKay fended off Leonard to take the win with Euan McKay rounding out the podium, the trio separated by less than a second at the flag. The win was enough to secure Dan McKay second in the championship behind his brother, cementing a superb run of form in the second half of the season.

Hudspeth crossed the line in fourth, with John McCullagh (Redline Racing) behind Justin Sherwood (Team Parker Racing) and Peter Jennings (G-Cat Racing) in seventh.

The Pro-Am2 championship fight went to the wire, Radcliffe taking another win with Shamus Jennings (G-Cat Racing) in second, just a fraction ahead of Peter Parsons (Car Loan Centre) who took his first podium of 2016 in the final round.

Kyle-Henney passed Barstys for fourth, but could make no further progress which left a delighted Barstys to be crowned 2016 Pro-Am2 champion.

Final points standings
1. Dan Cammish Redline Racing 313
2. Dino Zamparelli GT Marques 257
3. Charlie Eastwood Redline Racing 246

Pro-Am1
1. Euan McKay IN2 Racing 161
2. Dan McKay IN2 Racing 117
3. Sean Hudspeth Parr Motorsport 113

Pro-Am2
1. Tautvydas Barstys Juta Racing 138
2. Peter Kyle-Henney Parr Motorsport 130
3. Mark Radcliffe Intersport Racing 124

Ends

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Editors’ Note:

Porsche can claim more than 30,000 race victories in almost every motor sports series worldwide, and while many of these successes have been achieved with immensely powerful specialist race cars like the evocative 917 and 956, the iconic 911 sports coupe is the bedrock on which the peerless racing reputation of the Stuttgart marque has been built.

The 911 demonstrates perfectly the Porsche philosophy of not only building sports cars in order to win races, but also to gain development know-how that can be incorporated into the evolution of its road cars. Successive generations of the rear-engined 911 have been honed on the race circuit since its debut in 1963, with customers benefitting from continuous improvements in key dynamic areas such as engine performance, braking and aerodynamics.

Porsche is the world's largest manufacturer of racing cars; the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car competes in the Mobil1 Supercup, the world’s fastest international one-make Championship, which supports Formula One Grands Prix. The 911 GT3 Cup also entertains spectators around the world racing in the many domestic Carrera Cup Championships in Germany, Asia, France, Italy, Japan, Scandinavia and Great Britain. The all-new GT3 R is the first step for drivers moving up to GT racing, while the 911 RSR is the standard-bearer for the Porsche Works teams in international blue riband events like Daytona and the Le Mans 24 Hours.

With a record number of overall victories, Porsche is the most successful manufacturer in Le Mans history. In 2014, Porsche returned to Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with the factory-run 919 Hybrid sports prototype race car in the top LMP1 category, and scored its first outright victory in its debut WEC season in the final race in Brazil.

In 2015, Mark Webber (AUS), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Timo Bernhard (D) clinched the Drivers’ World Endurance Championship, and the WEC Manufacturers’ Championship, for Porsche. The Stuttgart company also triumphed at Le Mans, with the 919 Hybrid of Britain’s Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber (NZ) and Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenburg (D) scoring an emotional triumph, and leading the sister car of Webber/Hartley/Bernhard across the line for a 1-2 finish.

Porsche scored its 18th and most recent success at the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours in June when Romain Dumas (F), Marc Lieb (D) and Neel Jani (CH) took the chequered flag in their 919 Hybrid LMP1 after 24 hours of flat-out racing vs rivals Toyota.

2/10/2016