The last race in the Porsche Carrera Cup calendar for 2009 and local boy Tony Gilham is the 5^th fastest overall, making him the quickest pro-am1 driver.

Tim Harvey set the testing pace ahead of the final two rounds of the 2009 Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Brands Hatch today (Friday 2 October 2009). In a record 27-car field, Tony Gilham headed pro-am1, while Karl Leonard topped the pro-am2 times.

With all three drivers’ titles to be settled on Sunday, the stage is set for two dramatic races and the testing times showed how closely matched the leading contenders are. Harvey’s best lap on new tyres in the afternoon session set the mark at 1m29.461s, but he then uncharacteristically ended the session in the gravel trap at Stirlings. Harvey (Red Line Racing) reported that a problem on the downshift pitched him off and the subsequent red flag brought the session to an early halt. “I love the circuit and the car felt good all day,” said Harvey. “That’s stage one of the weekend done and I think there is more time to come.”

A tenth of a second behind Harvey was Tim Bridgman (Team Parker Racing) who said that traffic cost him his best lap. “I had good first two sectors on new rubber, then hit traffic,” he said. “It was going to be a low 1m29s lap.” Just behind Bridgman came James Sutton (Red Line Racing), the third of the key title contenders. “It’s taken a while to adjust to the circuit,” said Sutton of his first experience of the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in a Carrera Cup car.

Fourth fastest overall was Michael Caine (Motorbase Performance), who also felt that he could have gone quicker. “I was on my first flying lap on a new tyre run when the red flag came out,” said Caine.

A superb fifth fastest overall and top of pro-am1 was Tony Gilham, to make it three cars from Red Line Racing in the top five. However, only a very late sponsorship deal allowed him new tyres for the afternoon test session. “We secured a tyre sponsor 20 minutes before I went out,” said Gilham. “The car felt really good and there is more time to come.”

Sixth overall was Tom Bradshaw (Team Parker Racing) after a strong run in the afternoon, while pro-am1 championship leader Robert Lawson (JHR) was seventh from Jake Rosenzweig (Team Parker Racing). Rounding out the top 10 times were pro-am1 drivers Ollie Jackson (Motorbase Performance) and Derek Pierce (JHR). Pierce was tackling the Grand Prix circuit for the first time and ran well as he came back from a major accident at Rockingham two weeks earlier.

Karl Leonard (Team Parker Racing) set the pro-am2 pace, but Paul Mace (GT Marques) was well in contention. “It was busy out there, but there is another half-second to come,” said Leonard, after his first run on the Grand Prix circuit. Paul Hogarth (IN2Racing) was third in pro-am2, heading a close quartet of pro-am2 cars that also included Steve Parish (Motorbase Performance), George Brewster (Celtic Speed) and Glenn McMenamin (Parr Motorsport).

Porsche Carrera Cup GB