Round Seven Porsche Club Speed Championship

Round 7 Llandow Sprint
 
Hot Weather, Hotter Driving!
After a long and frankly very sticky and uncomfortable drive to the Vale of Glamorgan on the Friday before the Llandow sprint I was more than ready for a couple of cool beers and a good night’s sleep. Following a great evening spent with some of the always welcoming Speed Championship folk I got up to a bright and already warm Saturday morning on the camp site, just a few hundred yards from the circuit entrance.

After the short hop to the circuit, I met up with the dozen Porsche drivers and companions and the officials running the event advised us that they would hope to have at least three scoring timed runs after a single practice.

The circuit, another ex-WW2 airbase, was purchased by a local farmer after it was decommissioned in the 1960's. He linked the runways together and Llandow Race Circuit was born.
 
Practice
After a briefing by the Officials the drivers lined up for their practice run, one-and three-quarter laps long, the start feeding into a 'Bus Stop' chicane.

In P1 (360+Hp) Wayne Helme and Justin Dooling both looked impressive, their powerful models (718 GT4 and GT3) sounding determined as they launched into the first chicane. Wayne in the 718 was quicker in practice with a 90.18 second run.

Our two P2 (280-360Hp) runners were in very different cars. Andy Fagan with his heavily modified Boxster 3.4 and Russell Lloyd with his road going Boxster S.   Andy's car always roars away from the line like the proverbial bat and he completed the practice run in 91.30 seconds, a decent lead over Russell going into the scoring runs to follow.

P3 (220-280Hp) was the largest class at Llandow with a great mix of cars. There was a supercharged 2.7 944, a couple of well modified Boxsters, a 996, 997 and Cayman.
 
Quickest in the practice session was Jon Baldock, the current champion and Boxster driver leading by approx. 1.5 seconds at that stage from Eoin Card in the Cayman.

Stephen Jory, so often the leading car in the P4 class (up to 220Hp) found himself a couple of seconds or so behind Jake Cartwright in his 2.7 Boxster. Jake has made big steps in his performance this year and clearly wasn't going to surrender the class win without a fight!
 

Scoring Timed Runs
True to the form he showed in practice Jake Cartwright started the scoring runs with a great time, a second slower than Stephen but close given the speed we all know Stephen can carry on a fast circuit. In the second run Jake took the lead by 0.16 seconds over Stephen but then, just when it looked like this might be Jake's day Stephen was able to squeeze almost exactly the same margin, a 0.17 second improvement out of the 944 to take the P4 class win on the day. A brilliant class contest.

The P3 drivers included Justin Mather with his Supercharged 2.7 944. the type of 'blower' being used has a distinctive wailing sound and it turned heads as he screamed past the paddock on his scoring runs. Justin managed a 88.13 best run to end the day fourth in the class, just a few tenths slower than Stephen Jennings who was driving his road going 997 and was on his first outing of the year so far. Full credit to Stephen whose best time of the three was a quick 87.86 seconds securing him third place in P3.

Jon Baldock was quickest in the P3 class for two of the three scoring runs, but it was his second run that grabbed the championship points, an 86.57 time, a little over a second quicker than Eoin Card who is another driver who has been moving up the order somewhat this year. Eoin managed a strong 87.21 second time in his Cayman to take the P3 class runner up spot.

In P2 Andy Fagan was the picture of consistency, with three 87 second runs, the best of which an 87.36 second effort that took the P2 class win from Russell Lloyd who while a little way behind Andy in times, found over six seconds of improvement across the scoring runs.

Our two big cars the P1 contenders, Wayne Helme and Justin Dooling, continued to blast their way around the diminutive Llandow track but, with his best of 87.32 seconds Wayne took the P1 class win on his second run. Justin Dooling improved his times in the GT3 across all three attempts but couldn't quite make up the difference needed to pip Wayne for the win.

In summary then, an interesting track and mix of Porsche models that brought about some brilliant driving, followed by a sunny and warm drive home afterwards, what could be better!
 
Our next two rounds are at the Gurston Down Hillcimb on13th and 14th June. Why not come along and watch the action?
 
Simon Wilson
Championship Coordinator
Porsche Club GB
simonwilson@porscheclubgb.com