Round Twelve Porsche Club Speed Championship

Goodwood Sprint
 
Ever since the one-time RAF base at Westhamptnet was repurposed as a premier motor racing circuit drivers have been pitting themselves and their machines against the fast and more than a bit scary Goodwood course.
 
To those who have driven there its ability to focus attention and reward commitment is never really forgotten.
 
The Porsche Club Speed Championship with NINEMEISTER was there for its 12th round. A smaller group at this round, perhaps in part to the closeness to earlier rounds, cars being worked upon and/or the prime holiday period timing, the Porsche Club entry was never the less still packed with the potential for record lap times with some of the quickest class and championship title contenders looking to take advantage of a bone dry and very (very) warm track.
 
Personally, I loved driving at Goodwood. The atmosphere, the Spitfires and other WW11 aircraft still flying from the airfield at its center and of course that track, both addictive and intimidating in equal measure!
 
Practice
 
We had eleven cars running amongst a wide range of other makes and models. The day would consist of two practice runs and two, and if lucky three scoring timed runs later.
 
Nigel Watkins and Danny Jones, both driving GT3’s were our P1 contingent. Nigel knows the track and completed the single practice run a few seconds ahead of Danny with a 98.64  
 
It’s not really appropriate to say that we ‘only had one driver in P2 as the driver that was there (Andy Fagan) is in super quick form at present and would certainly be looking to better the class target time. Andy opted for a gentle first run to get the lay of the land before his challenge proper in the scoring runs later, his time 103.57 all about checking out the circuit rather than outright speed.
 
We had no P4 runners but no matter, we did have eight P3 drivers and three broke the 100 second barrier in practice, Chris Milne in his road going Boxster with a 98.80, Jon Baldock, also in a Boxster quicker with a 96.62 run and Sid Malik in his 996 quickest by just a few tenths going into the timed runs with his 96.31.


 
Scoring runs
 
The plan was that the first scoring run would be before lunch and with any luck two more would follow in the afternoon.
 
Nigel Watkins started well with a 97.35 second effort to sit quickest in P1 in the silver GT3. Danny Jones wasn’t far behind in his GT3 and recorded a first scoring run of 98.73 seconds. All the play for after lunch!
 
Andy Fagan and his growling Boxster 3.4 set off from the Goodwood pit lane starting line with a bit more Vigor and improved by just under 2 seconds to a first scoring run of 101.10, however there was clearly much more to come!
 
Several of the P3 runners also made big steps having become more confident pushing following the practice earlier. Some way quicker than anyone else was Jon Baldock, over two seconds better and nearly that ahead of the rest of the class with a 94.46. Closest by some margin was Sid Malik with a 96 .30 second time followed by Chris Milne with a 98.40 second run.
 
Everyone climbed out of hot sticky race overalls and stopped for lunch, some heading to the very smart café at the airfield just fifty yards or so from the paddock. From there you can watch Spitfire and other light aircraft taking off, quite the lunchtime venue!
 
Final Scoring Runs
 
Over the course of the last two runs Nigel Watkins took his GT3 (another road going car) to a very respectable 93.85 second best time, winning the P1 class from Danny Jones and his GT3. Hats off to Danny though as in his GT3, also road going, he managed around four seconds of improvement on his first visit to the tricky Goodwood circuit.
 
Andy Fagan lit the afterburners as he often does and put in two 95 second run times, his best a 95.32 effort just a couple of tenths off the record for the P2 class.
 
It did look as if the form book favourite, Jon Baldock, was likely going to capture another win at Goodwood. Graham Rose however does have a habit of working his way into the event, warming up if you will and then just when you think it’s all over he sneaks a belting run in just as the event closes to grab the win!  And so it was at Goodwood where after the second run Jon was steadily improving his times in his Boxster and was leading by around three tenths from Graham in his Supercharged 924S. A similar step improvement would surely earn him the class win?  Well Jon gained just a little time on is last run while Graham sailed along knocking approx. half a second off his time to grab the P3 class win with a great 93.35 second time, just 0.2 seconds ahead of Jon whose time was still quick enough along with Graham's to benefit from a points advantage for beating the P3 class record time.
 
So, small in number, large in competition!  Another great day at Goodwood.
 
With just two rounds left the calculators are now in need of cooling down!
Next round is Curborough on August 16th, see you there?  
 
Simon Wilson
Championship Coordinator
Porsche Club GB
simonwilson@porscheclubgb.com