Porsche Carrera Cup | New Record Set in Final Rounds of 2016

Dan Cammish sealed his back-to-back victory in the Porsche Carrera Cup in emphatic fashion by taking the win in the final round of the season at Brands Hatch. In doing so, he became the first ever driver to win 12 races in a season, as well as already being only the third driver to take back-to-back wins in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.

Intermittent rain dogged the qualifying session at Brands Hatch GP in the final round of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB this season. Despite the stop-start nature of qualifying as well as regularly changing grip levels, it was Porsche GB 2016 scholar and third place man in the championship, Charlie Eastwood, who posted the fastest time just before a red flag brought the session to an end. Daniel Lloyd, the 2012/2013 scholar, completed the front row in just his second weekend after returning to the championship, while a mistake by Cammish put him third on the grid. Dino Zamparelli, who was hoping to seal his second place in the championship, qualified fourth for round fifteen.

Round 15

Charlie Eastwood, who led the field away in the rolling start, capitalised on his position at the front of the field, converting his pole position to a maiden victory on a dry track. He was made to work for it, however, with Daniel Lloyd pushing him all the way, especially after an early safety car period bunched the pack. Come the chequered flag, there was just over a second separating the leading pair.

The battle from the second row started almost immediately as Zamparelli passed Cammish for third into the hairpin on the first lap. Cammish, who seemed to have more mid-corner pace in his car, returned the favour at the same corner on lap six after Zamparelli out-braked himself. Luck was on the side of Zamparelli, however, as Cammish made an uncharacteristic mistake by spinning on his way out of the hairpin, dropping him to 12^th. This allowed Zamparelli to take a step closer to sealing second in the championship as he fended off a charging Tom Oliphant to finish third. Cammish ultimately came home in eighth.

In Pro-Am1, 2016 champion, Euan McKay returned to winning ways with guest driver Karl Leonard splitting the McKay brothers to take second and Dan McKay slotting home in third. However, owing to the fact that Leonard was a guest driver, Dan got the second place points with Sean Hudspeth taking third, leaving the Pro-Am1 category open into the final round. Also to be decided in the final round was the battle for the Pro-Am2 title. Mark Radcliffe took a strong win to reduce the points gap slightly, but leader Tautvydas Barstys emerged in second place with eight points in hand over Peter Kyle-Henney who fought his way onto the podium and took fastest lap in the process.

Round 16

In a fitting finish to the 2016 season, champion Cammish lined up on pole position with season-long challenger Zamparelli next to him. The two protagonists fell into line astern at the start and even a mid-race safety car period could not prevent Cammish from taking a dominant win to make Porsche Carrera Cup GB history – 12 wins in a single season. Zamparelli had to make an early defence from Eastwood and Jonas Gelzinis, the Lithuanian muscling his was past the round 15 winner at Westfields to take third. Behind, Lloyd looked at taking the opportunity to follow Gelzinis through, but with two wheels on the grass slid back into fifth.

In a move that was almost a replay, Eastwood went on to take Gelzinis back at Westfields, with Lloyd again thwarted in his bold efforts to capitalise. Oliphant came out ahead in a race-long battle with Sharp for sixth, while Stephen Jelley managed to slip past the second-placed Rookie Lewis Plato for seventh. In Pro-Am1, Dan McKay fended off Leonard to take the win with Euan McKay rounding out the podium, the trio separated by less than a second at the flag. The win was enough to secure Dan McKay second in the championship behind his brother, cementing a superb run of form in the second half of the season.

The Pro-Am2 championship fight went to the wire, Radcliffe taking another win with Shamus Jennings in second, just a fraction ahead of Peter Parsons who took his first podium of 2016 in the final round. Kyle-Henney passed Barstys for fourth, but could make no further progress which left a delighted Barstys to be crowned 2016 Pro-Am2 champion.

Points Standings After Rounds 15 & 16:

Pro Category:

1.	Dan Cammish	Redline Racing	313
2.	Dino Zamparelli	GT Marques	257
3.	Charlie Eastwood	Redline Racing	246

Pro-Am1 Category:

1.	Euan McKay	IN2 Racing	161
2.	Dan McKay	IN2 Racing	117
3.	Sean Hudspeth	Parr Motorsport	113

Pro-Am2 Category:

1.	Tautvydas Barstys	Juta Racing	138
2.	Peter Kyle-Henney	Parr Motorsport	130
3.	Mark Radcliffe	Intersport Racing	124

The Porsche Carrera Cup GB returns in April 2017 with a season promising bigger and better things, including a round at Le Mans alongside some of the European Carrera Cup Championships. GT Porsche will keep you up to date with all the happenings surrounding the championship in the meantime.