Weather puts dampener on 300th Supercup race
FOOTBALL
PARKER Revs Motorsport had a challenging trip to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium for the 300th Porsche Supercup race in the series history, with wet weather and safety cars disrupting the weekend.
After Harry King returned from his Porsche Carrera Cup GB commitments last time out, the Leicestershire-based team fielded three cars, with Dutch star Loek Hartog joining full season driver Garry Findlay in the line-up to take on the longest circuit on the 2021 calendar.
In the only dry session of the weekend on Friday, the team’s speed was evident as Hartog topped the times for much of the running, finishing third quickest, while King was 13th and Findlay 20th after rival teams set times on new tyres in the closing stages.
The conditions made it tough in qualifying as the rain eased a little during the opening 15 minutes but, returning with increased intensity, there was no chance for competitors to improve their lap times, with King lining up 11th, Hartog 17th, and Findlay 21st.
King made a good start, while Hartog and Findlay managed to avoid a spinning car at La Source, before the entire field held its breath as leader Larry Ten Voorde was sent into a spin across the top of the blind crest at Radillon.
King did well to capitalise after the incident, moving up to sixth, before taking fifth with an excellent move around the outside of Les Combes and was sitting close to the podium positions with plenty of laps left to run.
But he then lost a spot and as Morris Schuring got alongside at Courbe Paul Frere, there was contact between the pair, which sent King off into a spin and tumbling down the order before he recovered to cross the line in 18th. Behind him, Hartog was locked in a battle with series frontrunners Ten Voorde and Tio Ellinas, finishing 11th, while Findlay had to fight his way through the field after serving a drive-through penalty for a minor technical infringement. Battling to get past some of the slower cars, he had to avoid more spinning machines during a chaotic race to come home 23rd.
The final laps of the race were beset by a pair of safety car periods as cars required retrieving from the side of the circuit.
King said: “In the wet we had a great car and I felt very comfortable with it.
“We got up to fifth and I knew the car was going to come into its own at the end of the race, so I just had to hold position for another two laps and wait for the car to come to me, but unfortunately contact from a guest driver ended our race early.
“Luckily, we dodged the barriers and avoided major damage, but it was a bit of a kick in the teeth really considering we’d put in so much hard work.
“It would have been a bit of a fairy-tale to come back and get a podium.”