Confidence booster for Donington Park as Thornhill race ace Ross gets double Silverstone Podium
Ross Wylie heads to Donington Park next weekend (15-16 Apr) aiming to get his Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain campaign underway buoyed by scoring a double podium finish in the Britcar Endurance Championship yesterday (9 Apr). Ross and 2009 & ’10 Britcar champion Witt Gamski swept the latter’s Ferrari 458 GT to second and third class placings at Silverstone – a perfect fillip to the massive disappointment the Dumfries driver suffered in the Porsche championship opener seven days earlier.
Starting his Carronbridge Sawmill (Dumfries) Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, prepared by SlideSports, from the sixth row of the grid at Brands on 2 April, the former British GT4 champion’s car was hit hard in to a spin after just one corner on the opening lap – triggering a multi-car accident. The impact damaged the chassis beyond repair forcing the young Scotsman to sit out the second race that day.
But at Silverstone last weekend, Wylie qualified the MJC Furlonger prepared Ferrari on the front row of the 31-car grid – narrowly missing out on pole-position. In the opening 50mins race around the 1.85-mile “International” circuit, the Gamski/Wylie Ferrari finished third overall – second in class, deprived a class win by less than five-seconds in the 43-lap race. Starting from the second row of the grid for the second race, the duo recorded third in class – sixth overall – despite Gamski suffering a spin in the two-hour race.
Ross Wylie (GB):
Age 25. Born & Lives Thornhill nr Dumfries, Scotland:
“I’m desperate to turn things around in the Porsche series at Donington this coming weekend and after Silverstone, I’m well and truly fired up. I have had one official Porsche Carrera Cup test day at Donington so hopefully we’ll be better prepared compared to Brands which was a very steep learning curve for us. I was then obviously gutted with what happened in the opening race – an innocent victim of another driver losing control after he’d run wide over the kerbs which launched him into the side of me.
“It was great to have some good seat time at Silverstone yesterday when I raced a stunning Ferrari 458 GTE for the first time. It was a pleasure driving with Witt [Gamski] and working with the MJC Furlonger team. It’s a big challenge jumping between the Porsche which has no anti-lock braking [ABS] or traction control and very little ‘aero’ – the complete opposite of the Ferrari but I’m enjoying the challenge of driving both cars. My aim is to keep up the momentum with a couple of point-scoring results in the Porsche at Donington.”
