Caine retains championship lead

Newmarket racing driver Michael Caine maintained his championship lead in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB with two top five finishes in rounds seven and eight at Thruxton in Hampshire.

Motor Sport:

Newmarket racing driver Michael Caine maintained his championship lead in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB with two top five finishes in rounds seven and eight at Thruxton in Hampshire.

However, it proved to be a frustrating two days for Caine as he claimed pole position in qualifying and was the fastest driver, yet two incidents prevented him winning again.

The Carrera Cup is Britain's fastest single-make race championship and is contested by 420bhp purpose-built racing Porsche 911GT3 Cup cars.

Caine led the opening lap of round seven but ran fractionally wide on the exit of the chicane and over a bump in the grass, which pitched his car into a spin in front of the pits. He dropped to eighth place before he could get going again, but battled back to finish fifth.

In round eight, Caine again led the early laps and was looking good for victory until coolant from a damaged radiator on another car played a dramatic part in the race outcome.

First to arrive at the chicane on his ninth lap was Caine and he had a big slide on the coolant. His car pitched up over the kerb and damaged the splitter at the bottom of the front bodywork in the process, which immediately drastically upset the handling of his car. “It was looking so good,” said a disappointed Caine after the race. “You couldn't see the coolant on the track.”

Once again he battled on and finished fourth to retain a 16-point lead over his nearest rival, Tim Bridgman from Essex.