RPM Claims Carrera Cup Pro-Am spoils in fortnight of success
RPM returned to the Carrera Cup last weekend with its CML backed GT regular Alex Mortimer at the wheel.
Despite having had little running in anger with a 997 the team managed to give Mortimer a car good enough to win his class and take a strong 5th place finish overall ahead of professional class drivers Michael Caine and former HPI British Touring car driver Richard Williams.
With careful consideration of the weather, track temperature and race distance the teams engineers opted for a set-up they felt would be good for the whole race distance. This hampered the team in qualifying leaving them 0.2s off the pro-am pole and 5th in class, 11th overall. The team however remained up beat as they knew they had a good consistent race car and this was to be proven in race 1. After a good start Mortimer had moved up 2 positions. 10 laps into the race it appeared that all the other cars were starting to run into tyre problems staying with there aggressive camber qualifying set-ups. This allowed the RPM car to climb through the pack to 6 overall and second in the Pro-am class managing over the final laps to dramatically close the gap to the class leader Phil Quaife as well as Jason Templeman and Tim Harvey.
Race 2 saw Mortimer start from 6th on the grid and after a great start squeeze past Quaife into a class lead on the run down to the first corner. Despite early pressure from 2005 British Touring Car Driver Richard Williams, Mortimer managed to break clear and hold his 5th place overall and take the pro-am victory on the teams first attempt. Mortimer was elated with the result and thanked all of the team especially his head engineer Jason who's set-up had allowed the car to be fast for the whole race distance without damaging its tyres. Having never even sat in the car before the Friday test Mortimer was delighted to have been able to chase home vastly more experienced Porsche drivers Tim Harvey and 2005 Champion Damian Faulkner.
This result was to follow on from a hugely successful weekend before where the CML backed Radical SR3 claimed pole, a new lap record and two race wins at Silverstone with Alex and team mate Nigel Redwood at the wheel moving them upto second in the Radical Championship.
With careful consideration of the weather, track temperature and race distance the teams engineers opted for a set-up they felt would be good for the whole race distance. This hampered the team in qualifying leaving them 0.2s off the pro-am pole and 5th in class, 11th overall. The team however remained up beat as they knew they had a good consistent race car and this was to be proven in race 1. After a good start Mortimer had moved up 2 positions. 10 laps into the race it appeared that all the other cars were starting to run into tyre problems staying with there aggressive camber qualifying set-ups. This allowed the RPM car to climb through the pack to 6 overall and second in the Pro-am class managing over the final laps to dramatically close the gap to the class leader Phil Quaife as well as Jason Templeman and Tim Harvey.
Race 2 saw Mortimer start from 6th on the grid and after a great start squeeze past Quaife into a class lead on the run down to the first corner. Despite early pressure from 2005 British Touring Car Driver Richard Williams, Mortimer managed to break clear and hold his 5th place overall and take the pro-am victory on the teams first attempt. Mortimer was elated with the result and thanked all of the team especially his head engineer Jason who's set-up had allowed the car to be fast for the whole race distance without damaging its tyres. Having never even sat in the car before the Friday test Mortimer was delighted to have been able to chase home vastly more experienced Porsche drivers Tim Harvey and 2005 Champion Damian Faulkner.
This result was to follow on from a hugely successful weekend before where the CML backed Radical SR3 claimed pole, a new lap record and two race wins at Silverstone with Alex and team mate Nigel Redwood at the wheel moving them upto second in the Radical Championship.
