He’s King of the track again
SIXTH AND SEVENTH WINS FOR HARRY AS TEAM CONTINUES ITS MARCH TOWARDS BENELUX TITLE
PARKER Revs Motorsport continued its dominant form in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux as Harry King claimed his sixth and seventh wins in eight races so far this season.
The Desford-based team was bolstered by the addition of several new faces as the series travelled to TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands.
Rik Koen will finish the year after moving across from PG Motorsport, while Will Aspin, who competes with Team Parker Racing in the GB series, and Lars Poel, replacing Jeroen Kreeft, joined as one-off entries.
It wasn’t all easy going for the team, however, as King started in second place for the opening race.
Koen also drove well, comfortably on the pace of the leading pack of drivers, while behind, Aspin was working hard to master the circuit and Poel familiarised himself with the car.
Slotting in behind Ghislain Cordeel at the start of race one, King made his way past with a nice switchback move, before locking a tyre as he pressed on, knowing he would need to build a gap as he was handed a five-second time penalty for moving before the lights went out.
Koen was locked in a solid battle with Xavier Maassen before the safety car was called out.
When racing resumed, Aspin had a good battle with Jan Lauryssen for seventh position, while Koen slipped back to fifth as Cordeel started to hold up the pack behind King, finally getting past Maassen when Glenn van Parijs prised the door open.
In the closing stages, Jaume
Font attempted a pass on the outside of Aspin at the final chicane, with the pair coming together and falling down the overall order, and the GB racer handed a time penalty by the stewards.
Poel was disappointed to spin on the final lap, slipping to tenth in Pro and 19th overall, but out-front King claimed the win despite the penalty.
As the lights went out for the second contest, King held the lead into turn one, with Koen in fifth, Aspin seventh and Poel 15th overall.
The race was quickly disrupted by a safety car for Tom Boonen who was tipped into a spin at the chicane, with Aspin gaining sixth place from Sam Dejonghe on the restart.
Dejonghe tried to retake the position but spun into the gravel,
necessitating another safety car.
On the second restart, King again held the lead while Koen battled with Maassen for fourth, before yet another safety car was called as Font again spun at the chicane.
The race resumed with just one lap remaining, but it was a disaster for Aspin who suffered a puncture and fell down the order, costing an impressive maiden weekend result.
Double winner and championship leader King said: “It was my first visit to TT Circuit Assen, so in free practice there was a lot of pressure to learn the track.
“There were a lot of red flags that hurt our progress, but I was still motivated and ready for qualifying on Saturday.
“I didn’t quite maximise the potential in that session, partly due to a lack of track knowledge, but we still finished P2 for race one and P1 for race two, so I was happy with the result.
“We made the move very early on in race one to gain first place, and then claim the win.
“It was a smoother race two, where we had a good start and the rest was history.
“The races featured a lot of safety cars, so there was a lot of pressure on me to make sure I maximised each restart, which we did.”
The team will resume Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux action over the weekend of August 26-28 as the series has an away weekend in Spain, competing alongside the European Le Mans Series at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
King added: “Looking at the championship, we have quite a few points in the bag, so missing Barcelona in a couple of weeks time shouldn’t hurt us too much, but it’ll certainly make the end of the season even more exciting.”