Team Redline Racing made a winning start to the 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup GB season at Donington Park this past weekend (April 23/24) as Adam Smalley and Matthew Graham scored a win apiece.
Kicking off the 20th anniversary season for the fastest single-marque GT championship in the UK, Porsche GB Junior winner Smalley marked his debut in the series with victory in race one before Graham made it a dream day for the team as he triumphed in race two.
There was further success in the Pro-Am category as Nathan Harrison produced a pair of standout drives to stand on the top step of the podium in both contests around the 1.98-mile circuit.
After fine-tuning the cars during Thursday’s two practice sessions, qualifying on Saturday saw Smalley shine as he clinched third place on the grid - missing out pole position by a mere two-tenths of a second.
Harrison was an impressive fourth whilst Graham and Micah Stanley made it four Redline cars inside the top seven, with Oli White and Nigel Rice further down the order.
As the lights went out for race one, Smalley held position before jumping up to second in the early laps. Shadowing the leader for a majority of the bout, the Duckhams Yuasa Racing entrant struck late to take advantage of a mistake and power into what proved to be a comfortable win.
Graham was also able to benefit from the travails of others as he climbed onto the podium in the latter stages to finish third. Harrison and Stanley ran line astern in seventh and eighth with Rice finishing fourth in the Am class. Unfortunately, White was unable to make an impact on proceedings as he retired from the race early on.
Starting on the front row for race two, Graham wasted no time in hitting the front as he took a lead that he would ultimately never lose. Controlling the pace out front, the 25-year-old took command of proceedings and took the chequered flag by a comfortable margin of more than three seconds.
Behind, Smalley capped off an impressive debut by finishing fourth whilst Harrison rounded out the top five, clinching Pro-Am honours for a second consecutive race in the process.
White managed to bounce back from his non-finish earlier in the day to net 12th whilst Rice once again narrowly missed out on clinching a class podium on his return to the championship after 13 years away.
Stanley rounded out the final classification after enduring an unfortunate spin down the Craner Curves, having run relatively untroubled inside the top ten.
Simon Leonard – Managing Director: “It's has been a fantastic start to the season and one we could have only dreamt of. To come away with a clean sweep of the overall and Pro Am wins is a brilliant achievement by everyone.
“Adam and Matty demonstrated that they are going to be in the mix for the title this year as their performances in both races were exceptional, especially in what is an ultra-competitive field this year.
“OIi didn’t have the best of weekend’s however the potential is there and I’m sure the results will come in time; the same goes for Micah. Finally, Nigel was fantastic and he fully deserved a podium after his performances.
“This has been a great start but we need to build on this when we head to Brands Hatch next month.”
Team Redline Racing are next in Porsche Carrera Cup GB action on the weekend of May 14-15 at Brands Hatch, but first they’ll tackle the second round of the British GT Championship at Silverstone on May 07-08.
Image from Porsche GB.