Duckhams Yuasa Racing extends Carrera Cup GB championship lead at Oulton Park

Duckhams Yuasa Racing with Team Parker claimed another Porsche Carrera Cup GB victory at Oulton Park at the weekend, as Adam Smalley extended his championship lead as the series heads into its summer break.
 
The 2.26-mile circuit is the closest to home for the Lancastrian racer, meaning he had plenty of support trackside not only from friends and family, but also many guests from Duckhams who supported he and teammate Harry Foster at the brand’s stand in the fan engagement zone.
 
The tight Cheshire circuit is notorious for being tough to overtake on, putting a premium on qualifying well. Despite setting good times, both Adam and Harry felt they could have gone faster were it not for a late red flag interrupting their final laps. Nevertheless, they were both well placed with Adam third and Harry sixth in the Pro class.
 
Adam got an incredible start to the first race – a longer than usual contest of 30 minutes in length – almost managing to drive between the two cars in front of him before the first corner. He was squeezed by leader James Kellett but managed to hold onto second place ahead of title rival Robert de Haan.
 
Heading into the Knickerbook chicane on the opening lap he was hit from behind, sending him onto the grass and damaging the car as the splitter was ripped off the front of the car. He took further contact from de Haan on lap three resulting in his rival being handed multiple penalties after the race and, while it meant Adam had handling issues from then on, he drove superbly to finish second.
 
Harry had a good start from the fifth row of the grid but, unfortunately, ran wide on the marbles at turn one whilst fighting for position. That forced him onto the grass, where he also lost his front splitter, requiring him to nurse the car to the finish like his teammate, crossing the line seventh in Pro.
 
The second race of the weekend was a 20-minute blast, broadcast on the main ITV1 channel. Adam once again had a great start to gain a place off the line, but the Safety Car was immediately called after a car went off at turn one. When racing resumed with just eight minutes to go, Adam dove up the inside of Josh Malin at turn one and, from there he was untroubled as he brought the car home for his second victory of the year. Further back, Harry was stuck in the pack and without many racing laps, was unable to make much progress, finishing eighth in class.
 
Duckhams Yuasa Racing with Team Parker will now have an eight-week summer break, before the second half of the season resumes over the weekend of August 12-14 at the undulating and picturesque Knockhill in Scotland for rounds nine and ten of the season. However, Adam will not have that long to wait before he is back out in a Porsche in the iconic Duckhams colours, with an exciting announcement to come in the coming weeks.

Adam Smalley 

G1 – 3, R1 – 2
G2 – 3, R2 – 1
 
Championship: 1 (75 points)

“Qualifying was quite difficult. It's so close, it was 0.020s to P2, so Robert [de Haan] had a little bit of an advantage, but we got caught up with the red flag on our final run. The first race was really good as I got a brilliant start and nearly took the lead, but then had to bail out. I was in second and then I got hit very hard on lap one and sent across the grass, ripping the splitter off. I got hit again into the hairpin on lap three, which put me back to third, but after that, without the splitter the pace seemed quite good, so I finished P2 which was a good result.
 
“I was so happy to take the win in race two, at our home track with all our friends, family, and sponsors there. It was amazing! The car was on rails, so with the shortened race it was a little frustrating because I knew we had the pace. I saw the clock counting down, and knew I had to get the move completed early. To get it done crack on, and then set the fastest lap of the race was just the icing on the cake.”

Harry Foster

G1 – 8, R1 – 7
G2 – 6, R2 – 8
 
Championship: 10 (13 points)
Rookie Championship: 3 (38 points)

“Qualifying went well. The margins are so tight, that any small improvement would have put me quite far up the order, so it was little frustrating, but we're getting there with our one lap qualifying pace. The first race didn't go too well. I went wide at turn one and there was quite a lot of marbles on the outside, which I didn't expect, and I understeered straight onto the grass and lost my splitter. That little bit of plastic provides so much downforce on these cars that I was miles off the pace and hoping that others would make mistakes.
 
“I didn't have the best of starts to race two. I was battling to get through, but I just kept finding myself in a bad position, getting passed by someone else and having to regroup, which was a bit unfortunate. I had good pace, but I didn't get to show it because I was following through traffic. I was a tough weekend, but now we’ve got a bit of a break so we can regroup and come back refreshed for the second half of the season.”