Porsche Club Return to Donington Park GP Circuit
The Porsche Club Motorsport Championship with Pirelli and Porsche Club Motorsport AM Championship with Pirelli and fields have their first outing on the full Donington Park GP circuit for several seasons this Sunday, September 15th, while the Woods Foodservice Porsche Club Boxster Cup take on the full layout for the first time. For all three series the title battle is in full flow so this will be a crucial meeting with just two more races left after Donington Park.
Mark McAleer heads the Club Championship points, with Simon Clarke and son Jake McAleer close behind, while it is equally tight in the AM category where Angus Archer heads Darren Labbett and Jason Brown.
Mark McAleer currently tops the Championship class points table, the former double-champion having taken two wins from the ten races to date in his 997 C2S. Just six points behind is another former champion in Simon Clark, who has five wins but two non-finishes – and with drivers counting their best 12 scores for the 14-race season that could prove crucial. Also, on two wins and third in the championship is Jake McAleer, the lead three all in 997s and having dominated the podium places so far in 2024.
Bill Caley is the leading Cayman runner and the only other racer to win so far this season, and he sits fourth, just one place ahead of his father James. It is not only the action at the front that has been entertaining with great racing down the order, drivers such as Pete Morris and Chris Dyer have been race winners in previous seasons, and mix in rapid racers such as Jim Bryan and Ed Hayes and the two 25-minute races will be well worth watching.
The Porsche Club Motorsport AM Championship was previously class two and is now its own championship, and Angus Archer heads the points having hit the ground running with two wins at the season opener at Donington Park back in April. A consistent run of podium finishes has seen Darren Labbett close on Archer to be just 14-points behind before dropped scores, and this weekend will be crucial with just more two races left.
Jason Brown has gained pace as the season has progressed, having taken his first win in the series and a pair of second place finishes last time out at Croft. Oliver Chatham has won the last three races in his Boxster, but having missed the start of the season is well back in the points race.
The Woods Foodservice Porsche Club Boxster Cup has provided some great racing so far this season, and while each of the first four races featured a different winner the experienced Mike Thompson has now won four of the last six races.
Thompson may have won more races that any other driver but a troubled start to the season sees him only seventh in the points though he has been gaining places as the season has progressed. It is Wayne Gregory who tops the points with three wins, the most recent at Croft last month in a drive that saw him hold off Thompson in race two.
Ryan Charters was winner of the opening race of the season at Donington Park back in April and a run of consistent finishes since then sees him second in the points table. Sixteen points further back in third is Darren King, who was going well at Croft but failed to finish race two, hurting his points tally.
A newcomer at the start of the season, Ben Grewcock has rapidly settled into Boxster Cup racing and was delighted at Croft three weeks ago to claim a second-place finish in race two. Another driver to record their first podium finish this season is Sarah Thomson, who claimed third in the opening race at Anglesey in July and sits fifth in the points, just behind Grewcock.
With the series never having raced on the full Grand Prix layout at Donington Park before, the final part of the lap will be new to pretty much all the field, which could provide a shake up to the usual order and offer some of the drivers battling hard in the hectic mid-field a chance to shine.