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Motorsport

22 Mar 2022

Photos by Gary Hawkins

Competitive Season Ahead for Porsche Club Championship

Competitive Season Ahead for Porsche Club Championship

The Petro-Canada Lubricants Porsche Club Championship with Pirelli season starts at Donington Park on April 2nd, with an intriguing mix of returning regulars, race winners in new cars and very welcome new faces. Both classes are bursting with potential frontrunners, and with over 20 Porsches on the grid, 2022’s fourteen races should provide the close and dramatic racing everyone has come to expect from the series in recent seasons.

Class one usually provides the outright race winners and has been won for the previous two seasons by Simon Clark, who also claimed the 2020 outright title. Clark is back for 2022 but now in a 996 C2, having been so successful in a Cayman S, so it will be interesting to see if how quickly he is up to speed in his new mount. Strasse team-mates Pete Morris and Chris Dyer are also both former champions and regular race winners, Morris racing a 997 C2S, the most powerful but heaviest car on the grid, while Dyer heads the Cayman S challenge.

James Caley has been a race winner in his 997 C2S, and is joined in class one this season by his son Bill, who made his race debut two seasons ago in class two Boxster and was a front runner at the end of last season. Bill Caley is out in the Cayman that took Clark to numerous race wins, but will be on a learning curve with a new car and class one competition.

The 996 is a popular choice this season, with Andy Muggeridge stepping up from class two to race one, with returning regulars such as the ever-rapid Kevin Harrison, Porsche Club Motorsport chairman Paul Seagrave, and popular Kevin Molyneaux all in the 300BHP 911 variant. Richard Ellis and Richard Bayston were both out in 996 last season and are back for more in 2022.

Making his Porsche Club Championship debut is Neil Delargy, with a 997 C2S.

Class two is dominated by Boxsters and in recent years has supplied some extremely close racing. Paul Simpson and Angus Archer were both race winners last year and are back in action again , but have several potential rivals in the season ahead.

James Coleman didn’t race in 2021 but was untouchable on his day before his break, and should be right on the pace from race one. Julian Morris, Carl Hazelton and Vince Blacker are all back and have the potential to battle for podium finishes, while Kevin Ludford sampled the series last year and is back for more.

Andrew Porter is one of the newcomers while a dark horse for race wins could be Richard Forber.
Having won the Porsche Classic Boxster Cup in his first season of circuit racing, Former now steps up to class two, and racing on slicks fo the first time, having shown his pace and racecraft, and will be one to watch as the season progresses.

The Porsche Club Championship is for road-going Porsche models converted to racing, all cars racing on Pirelli slick tyres with a treaded alternative for wet-weather. The differing models are balanced for race purposes with varying minimum weights, and the series visits the UK’s leading circuits including races on the Silverstone and Brands Hatch Grand Prix layouts.