Rounds Five and Six Porsche Club Speed Championship

 
Rounds 5 & 6 Loton Park Hillclimb
 
Wet, Dry and all things in-between!
Friday was lovely, warm, sunny and in the afternoon as I packed the camper van I imagined the Loton Park Hillclimb course, winding its way through a wooded and quintessentially English Deer park .
By the time I got there on the Saturday morning the weather had changed from pleasant to really quite cold and rain clouds looked ready to unload at any time. There were twenty three Porsche Speed Championship drivers gathering their thoughts as the rest of the event classes set off on the first practice runs of the day.


 
Saturday Practice
In our P4 class (up to 220Hp) we had three contenders. All three experienced and keen to attack the very technical Loton hill. As hills go it has everything, speed, turns uphill, turns downhill and a blind crest that has claimed many a hopeful trophy hunter. The weather was by now punctuated by showers and a track that was wet to begin with, and never really fully dry even after the showers had stopped.
After two practice runs Martin Leach in the 911E was quickest in the class by around half a second, but given the conditions a lead like that did not guarantee any lasting advantage.
The again very busy P3 class (220-280Hp) had no less than 5 past Champions in it and with eleven drivers in a variety of models, modified and road going ,it was bound to be an interesting competition to watch.
Practice times varied by as much as 30 seconds as some struggled to keep their cars on the straight and narrow, but it was the reigning champion, Jon Baldock, who went into the lunch break ahead of the rest of the class by a second.
The P2 class (280-360Hp) was home to the quickest car overall so far this year, David Dyson's 991.2t often setting the pace, but in Loton practice Andy Fagan was quickest with a great 58.94 second time, around six tenths quicker than David, the Boxster finding that bit more grip on the early runs.
Our two new P1 drivers this year, Danny Jones and Justin Dooling, both with GT3 models put in impressive first runs in practice on such a difficult hill to learn but it was the greater experience of Wayne Helm in the 718 GT4 that found the best time, leading the class after practice with a great 63.74 second best.
 
Saturday ( Round 5) Scoring Timed Runs
The conditions remained changeable as the cars moved on to their scoring runs. Some drivers will tell you that they prefer the conditions to be either fully wet or fully dry and the 'showers then sun then showers again' conditions make arriving at any sort of consistency much harder to do.
 
This certainly seemed to be the case the times progressed. In P1 Wayne Helme was around five seconds slower than his practice best during the first scoring run but was then able to find significant time on his final run to win the class with a 65.88 second best effort. Danny Jones wasn't too far behind at 68.80 seconds, a great result for his first outing and Justin Dooling, his score affected by the PDK penalty applied to cars using those systems, was third in P1.
The close P2 battle between David Dyson and Andy Fagan continued into the scoring runs with Andy ahead on both by the smallest of margins until that is he hit a corner marker post and received a one second penalty. That sealed the result for the class and David Dyson took the win with a 63.66 second best from Andy who with the second added showed a 64.44 time to end in second place. Nigel Watkins took his GT3 to a 65.61 best to grab third in the class.
The usually dominant in P3 Jon Baldock was briefly behind the times during the scoring runs with his first time in the Boxster, a 68.29 second run around half a second behind an on-form Eoin Card in his road going Cayman.  However, Jon did manage to improve the second scoring run (as did many in the championship classes) by just over three seconds to take the class win from Eoin who also improved to a brilliant 66.24 time. Chris Milne who, driving another road going car, a Boxster in this case, recorded a strong 67.03 time to end the day third in P3.
Finally to the P4 runners and their challenge started with just half a second between all three drivers in three hugely different cars, a Boxster, a classic 911E and the well setup 944 driven by Stephen Jory.
That balance was clearly a help in the tricky weather and Stephen's best scoring time of 63.94(amazing given that it is a P4 car) was several seconds ahead of the other two cars in the class to claim the P4 win. Martin Leach and Jake Cartwright were separated by just 0.05 seconds for second and third place, Martin just pipping Jake on this occasion.
So, round five over and done with and round six to follow the next day when , we all hoped the weather would be kind and with the previous day's experience under their belts the drivers should be able to push that bit harder!


 
Sunday (Round 6)
It’s an age thing I guess, but I do find that getting up from a night in my camper van involves a sort of 'ratcheting' process before I am fully upright, or is it just me? :)
 
The weather, now warm and dry helped alleviate any early morning aches and pains and I arose to the sound of well-tuned engines getting ready for the first practice runs on the now cleaner, drier and faster Loton Park hill.
 
Sunday Practice
Times were instantly improved from the previous day as the cars completed another two practice runs. P1 lead went to Wayne Helme who achieved a practice best of 60.79 seconds, about 1.4 seconds ahead of Danny Jones who was quick with 62.23 second best practice run.
 
Nigel Watkins pushed hard from the outset and was sitting in second place in P2 after second practice, just a couple of tenths behind David Dyson and with Andy Fagan well in touch with his best practice of 59.82 seconds.
 
In P3 Sid Malik had a mild 'bumper bender' of an off at the top of the course on his second practice, but it was great to see him rapidly patch the car together enough to run in the afternoon scoring timed runs.
 
Best P3 practice went to Justin Mather, with a great 60.80 second time, Justin having his first run for several years and his car giving his the odd headache along the way. Jon Baldock exited the practice runs second in P3  but just by 0.02 seconds from Ian Wadsworth who must have slept and/or eaten well given the very rapid pace he showed from the start of the practice runs, a pace he would then maintain all day.
 
With another brilliant practice of 60.39 seconds Martin Leach and the 911E were quickest in the P4 class as the cars returned to the paddock for the lunch break. Stephen Jory was around a second behind with Jake Cartwright a little less than a second behind Stephen to sit in 3rd in P4 with his Boxster.
 
Sunday Scoring Timed Runs
Just 0.71 seconds separated the three P4 runners at the end of the scoring timed runs. Martin leach, with his first scoring run was quickest but in the second Stephen Jory found 0.32 seconds to grab the P4 class win in the 944. Jake Cartwright was third just six tenths behind Martin with a great 60.49 second best. 
 
Jon Baldock went into the scoring runs in determined fashion, his first ending the day the P3 class winning time of 60.11 seconds, the second an 85 second time after a foray off track!  Runner up in P2 went to Ian Wadsworth who took his 911SC/RS to a best of 60.14, just 0.03 seconds behind Jon. Justin Mather couldn't hold on to the lead he had at the end of practice but still managed a quick 61.72 time in the slightly under the weather Supercharged 924 to end the day third in P3.
 
After the disappointment of the previous day when a penalty robbed him of the P2 win Andy Fagan was looking to attack the hill with his customary gusto in the modified Boxster. With both scoring runs in the 58 second bracket, he was quicker than the previous class record on the hill. However, he wasn't quicker than David Dyson who ended the day the winner in P2 with an excellent 57.56 second time. Nigel Watkins ran a little wide on his final run but with a fine 59.40 second time already in the bag took third in P2.
 
Wayne Helme in the 718 GT4 was another driver that broke into the 59 second bracket, his first run his best at 59.58 seconds taking a well deserved 1st in P1, several seconds ahead of Danny Jones and Justin Dooling third, both drivers recording excellent first run times on the hill.
 
The next event is Llandow on 30th May, a sprint in South Wales and then we are on to Gurston Down for 2 days of fast Hillclimbing on 13th and 14th June, see you there?
 
Simon Wilson
Championship Coordinator
Porsche Club GB
simonwilson@porscheclubgb.com