Parkins and Dorrington share top honours at Imola

Race report by PorscheSport.com

Defending champion Ryan Parkins maintained a small gap at the top of the leaderboard in the Porsche Club Great Britain Sim Racing Championship. On the virtual version of the notoriously tricky Imola racetrack, the defending champion snatched the pole position by only nine hundredths of a second, from championship challenger Matthew Dorrington. Fans were in for a spectacular evening of motorsport as 29 Club members lined up on the grid.

With the first race looking like a Parkins versus Dorrington battle on the front row, viewers were surprised when Dorrington was swamped off the line as Parkins shot ahead from the chasing pack. Paul Riga and Gary Tall were the big winners into turn one, with a second and third place respectively. It was Matthew Dorrington who had to put on an impressive recovery drive to eventually overtake Paul Riga and Gary Tall to reclaim his second position.

It looked like a strong points position for Johnny Ellia, before he lost control of his 911 Cup Car and ultimately losing his fifth position, almost collecting Patrick Charlton on the way, who did very well to avoid the incident. There was no luck for PorscheSport drivers, Carl Sharkey and Luke Holroyd, who both had separate errors resulting in them finishing way down the order. It was Ryan Parkins who claimed Round 5 victory, with Matthew Dorrington in second, Paul Riga in third and Mark Phillips and Patrick Charlton rounding off the top five.

Round 6 had the highly anticipated reverse grid, which often provides thrills and spills across the field. Mark Searle, Andrew Shepherd and Jamie Ward had all the work to do on the front row with a 28 strong grid behind. All of the field managed to tackle the first sector without disaster, with only Ryan Penny making a mistake, but thankfully not making contact with any other drivers as his car bounced across the racing line. Heavy contact between Danny Jones and Paul Stout triggered a domino effect of incidents, with many of the mid pack taking to the grass to avoid further damage.

Upfront it was Angus Archer who made the most of the first lap, followed closely by Colin Wynn and Luke Holroyd. Matthew Dorrington and Carl Sharkey were also making impressive progress work through the field and were already up to fifth and sixth position by lap two. Ryan Parkins failed to navigate the traffic as quick as his championship rivals in the early stages but still managed an impressive battle all the way to second place. Matthew Dorrington, whose victory kept the points at the top of championship close, ensured his early aggression through the field payed off.

PorscheSport driver Carl Sharkey made up for his round five error with a podium finish and his team mate Luke Holroyd also rectifying his early mistakes with a seventh place finish. More strong performances from Johnny Ellia, Paul Riga and Mark Phillips placed them in the top six as they put on an impressive show for the fans.

After the third race meeting, Ryan Parkins (128 Points) leads the overall classification with a mere 10-point advantage over Matthew Dorrington (118 Points). Paul Riga (77 points) and Johnny Elia (79 points) have gained a lot of ground thanks to their impressive drives.

Watch the full replay here.

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