Duckhams Yuasa Racing with Redline has weekend of two halves at Silverstone

Duckhams Yuasa Racing with Redline had an up and down weekend at Silverstone (September 24/25) as Adam Smalley and Oliver White showed pace and promise, but suffered bad luck in race two, denting the team’s championship hopes in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.

Coming in with a shot at the Drivers’ title, Adam remained at the front of the field, putting in a great lap in qualifying on Saturday afternoon which was bested late on by rival Kiern Jewiss, who finished just a tenth of a second quicker than the Lancastrian. Oliver, meanwhile, was just 0.4s off the pace of his teammate, but with just one second covering the top 19 drivers, found himself 13th overall and eighth of the Pro class competitors.

Adam started race one well, slotting into second place behind Jewiss, before Theo Edgerton found a way past. Battling with title rival Will Martin, the pair swapped positions, before the Porsche GB Junior Driver made a good pass at Becketts to regain third, which he held to the flag, scoring his eighth podium of the season, and drawing closer to Martin for second in the standings.

For Oliver it was a tougher contest as he had contact with Jack Bartholomew on the opening lap which sent him into a spin and down to the back of the field. From there he showed great speed and race craft to fight his way back up the order, eventually getting stuck in a big battle for 12th overall, crossing the line 13th and ninth in the Pro class.

Race two was one to forget for both drivers sadly. Oliver once again enjoyed some close battles in a big pack of cars, but would have to retire with several laps remaining, with steering issues and a severely flat spotted tyre. Adam once again started well but was unfortunate into turn two as Edgerton behind suffered a stuck throttle, hitting the rear of his Porsche and sending him into leader Martin, costing time and positions.

Re-joining in 16th, he produced a great recovery drive to fight his way through the field, finishing seventh overall and fifth in Pro. Sadly, it means his championship aspirations are unlikely to be realised this season, needing a perfect weekend to end the season with his rivals not scoring to take the title.

Refusing to give up, Duckhams Yuasa Racing with Redline will be fully prepared for the final rounds of 2022 which take place on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit over the weekend of October 8/9.

Adam Smalley, #21

Round 1 – Grid:2, Race:3

Round 2 – Grid:3, Race:7

Championship: 3 (87 points)

It's been a bittersweet weekend, I suppose. Qualifying was good getting P2 and race one started with a messy first lap where I fell down the order, came back through, fell down again, and came back through again. Crossing the line in third meant another podium which was great.

Race two was frustrating. I got a good start and Theo [Edgerton] admitted he had an issue with the car where the throttle was stuck, so as we went into turn two, he was on my bumper, got loaded on the brakes, and I was like a bowling ball into the car in front of me. It was out of my control, it's racing, and these things happen.

We did all our testing on Wednesday, so we were confident of what we could do, and qualifying was good. We put a good lap in, but Kiern did a good lap as well, so credit to him. He's had a great weekend, which has made our championship hopes very, very difficult, but it's not over till it's over and I'm going to keep fighting until the end. Fingers crossed; we can go out on a high at Brands Hatch.

Oliver White, #2

Round 1 – Grid:13, Race:13

Round 2 – Grid:13, Race:DNF

Championship: 11 (8 points)

Free Practice went really well, I was fairly close to the pace of the front guys, and it's a very short lap at Silverstone so you get plenty of laps to practice, which is good. Qualifying was the low point of the weekend. I fluffed the first set of new tires, I just didn't hook up any good laps. Then on the second set there were just loads of yellow flags, so I just couldn't improve. We finished 13 which wasn't good, so I was disappointed with that. The lap is so short, you have to be perfect. If you can make a small mistake you lose out a lot.

Starting 13th for race one, I had a really good start and I gained two places almost immediately. Then I was overtaking a third car and got hit hard from behind into a spin. So, I dropped to the back and then got back up to 13th having made nine overtakes.

Starting 13th in race two, I had contact into the first turn. It's was just a racing incident into Copse, I was on the inside, Ryan [Ratcliffe] was on the outside, and it just it all got very tight. My front corner rubbed his back corner and that put my tracking out. I eventually got a really nasty flat spot, so I retired as we were down to the canvas. In the end, it was a disappointing weekend.