Duckhams Yuasa Racing with Redline ready to bounce back in Carrera Cup
Duckhams Yuasa Racing with Redline is aiming to bounce back and reassert itself in the championship standings as the Porsche Carrera Cup GB heads to the UK’s fastest circuit, Thruxton, for rounds 11 and 12 of the season.
Still firmly in the mix for both the Entrants and Drivers Championship titles, the team had an unusually low-key visit to Snetterton last time out, as Adam Smalley and Oliver White finished seventh and eighth in both contests on a baking hot race day.
This time out, hopes are higher as the team has worked hard to identify where it can make amends and get back into contention for podium finishes, where it has been for every other round of the campaign.
Porsche GB Junior Driver Adam remains third in the standings and just seven points off second position before dropped scores are applied, knowing a strong weekend in Hampshire will bring him right back into the mix.
Similarly, Oliver has been making great strides behind the wheel of his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machine, now regularly finishing inside the top ten and working hard on his qualifying performances, knowing that overtaking is tougher this season.
After two practice sessions on Friday, August 26th, Adam and Oliver will head out for qualifying a day later. The first of two 20 lap contests is set to get underway at 10:50 on Sunday, 28th, with the second race starting at 15:50 and broadcast live on ITV4.
Adam Smalley, #21
“I'm really looking forward to Thruxton as we head into the final three weekends of the season. Snetterton was a tough weekend for us, but we've identified where we went wrong and a couple of issues on the way, so I'm happy to resolve those and I'm feeling confident. It's a circuit I love and a track like no other. It's the quickest venue we go to, and it's been a great circuit for me in terms of results over the past few years. Last year was my strongest, with pole position, two wins, and a second in the reverse grid race. A repeat of that would be nice, but it's a great circuit and I can't wait to try it out in this car.
“The championship is a lot tougher now. We are 22 points behind, but I'm just going to keep focused on taking it round by round, maximising my results each weekend, and hopefully climbing my way up in the standings. We're still third, which is great for my rookie season, but my goal now for the last three rounds is to come back as strong as I can and finish the year on a high.”
Oliver White, #2
“Thruxton is the most local track on the calendar to me and I'm really looking forward to racing there. It's a track I've never actually raced on before, so I'm looking forward to it. It's very high speed and very full on. I've done plenty of laps on the sim to familiarise myself, and our engineer Guy has sent some onboard footage from previous drivers, so that's helped a fair bit as well. I think it's just going to be about learning the track as quickly as possible on the Friday test day.
“My confidence is growing as the year goes on, especially at Knockhill. I think that was a breakthrough weekend in a way and I'm consistently now in the top ten, which is good. It's just about building on that now and trying to creep further forwards and trying to qualify as high as I can. I think that's the key in these cars as the better you qualify it's easier to keep track position. I've made lots of small increments everywhere. I wouldn't say there's a magic bullet. It's just gradual confidence building and the more mileage you do in these cars, the more comfortable you get. You can push them to the limits then and it just everything gets easier.”