Croft is the local circuit for a host of Sylatech Porsche Club Championship with Pirelli runners, including Richmond-based Championship leader Mark McAleer, who could take two large steps towards his second title when the series visits the North Yorkshire circuit this Saturday, 27th August.
Class One front-runner all season, McAleer’s closest rival is Andy Toon, the class two points leader, but both have had to battle for class wins as the rest have been pushing them hard in the latter part of the season.
McAleer has won five of the first six races in his RVR Racing 996 C2, but Toon matched his total and the two have been all close season long. McAleer has come under pressure at the front, with reigning champion Pete Morris back on song in recent races and taking both wins at Donington Park two weeks ago.
Morris is part of the strong Strasse line-up, the Leeds-based Porsche specialist also running Toon and Hugo Holmes in Boxsters, Chris Dyer’s Cayman S and Croft regular David Botterill’s 964 C2. Chasing wins in both the top two Classes, they will be keen to impress at their ‘local’ track.
The 996 has been the dominant car at the front, with Kevin Harrison, Mike Johnson, Paul Winter and Richard Ellis all chasing podium finishes in their examples and a race win for any of them cannot be discounted. Another to watch for is the Cayman S driven by Nathalie McGloin, the only female spinal injured racing driver to hold an ARDS in the UK.
Toon has had to work hard in Class two, with Tim Speed’s venerable 968 CS always a factor, while in recent races Jake McAleer, son of points leader Mark, has found his form, taking his first Class win at Brands Hatch last month and following that up with another at Donington in his Boxster S and has moved to third in the Class points.
Paul Seagrave made his debut in his new Boxster at Croft last season and has been on the Class podium in 2016, just heading Holmes in the points. Talan Skeels-Piggins is out in another Boxster and the second racer in the field running his car purely on hand controls.
Qualifying is at 09.25 on Saturday morning, with the two 25-minute races at 12.00 and 16.55.