Safety car trouble denies King a double Dutch triumph
PARKER Revs Motorsport enjoyed another dominant weekend in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux as Harry King claimed two pole positions, two fastest laps and what looked like two wins at Zandvoort in the Netherlands, before a post-race penalty was handed down.
Travelling to a circuit at which he raced in the Porsche Supercup last season, King continued his impressive run of form in qualifying, taking pole position for both 30-minute contests.
But team-mate Jeroen Kreeft was unlucky to have an incident at his home circuit, which also meant he was unable to take part in the opening contest as the car could not be repaired in time.
Starting from the front of the field, King got away well and quickly opened up a lead, crossing the line over two seconds clear after two laps of racing.
From then on, he built up a good advantage, but a lengthy safety car eradicated the gap.
Going green with just four minutes remaining, the BRDC SuperStar once again pulled clear of the pack, before the safety car was called once again, which is how the contest finished.
The team worked diligently to repair Kreeft’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machine for Sunday’s race and he duly joined King on the grid.
Up front, the British racer drove away from the start in a performance similar to the previous day and, despite two safety car periods, controlled the race for what would have been his sixth win in six races.
Sadly, on the final restart, the safety car returned to the pit lane slowly and King, despite giving it plenty of room, caught and passed it just a second or so before it peeled off track and was handed a five-second time penalty, relegating him to fifth position and ending his dominant run. Behind, Kreeft rewarded the team’s efforts with fifth place in the Am class. Championship leader King said: “It was a theoretically a perfect weekend, we had great pace and my in my eyes, we did nothing wrong.
“The pit lane at Zolder was very different, so it didn’t allow for this kind of thing to happen, and you had clear vision ahead.
“When you’ve got two completely blind corners heading on to the straight, there’s nothing you can really do to gauge how far away the safety car is.
“I waited until I had a whole straight ahead of me without the safety car on it, and I still managed to somehow catch them up when they were cruising into the pit lane.
“It’s a shame to get the penalty but it is what it is.”
There is now a break in Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux action, with the series resuming at Assen in the Netherlands over the weekend of August 7-9.