With the championship already decided last time out at Silverstone, the pressure was off in the final rounds of the 2012 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain, with Jonas Gelzinis and Sam Tordoff emerging victorious at a wet Brands Hatch.
Lithuanian Gelzinis started the opening race from pole and led away at the start. Benefitting from spray affecting the driver’s behind, the Juta Racing star pulled clear, going two seconds ahead by the end of lap two, before eventually going on to win the race by over fourteen seconds, his first overall victory in the championship.
Behind, a fantastic scrap for second developed, starting with Rory Butcher passing Richard Plant around the outside of Paddock on the opening lap to take the place. He was soon under pressure from Tordoff, who passed Plant on lap four, before going on to pass Butcher at Surtees on lap ten to take second, holding it to the finish.
Butcher held third, while a late move by Daniel Lloyd saw him take fourth from Ben Barker and Andy Meyrick, with a disappointed Plant only able to finish seventh. Derek Pierce took the Pro-Am1 win in eighth overall, with early class leader Ahmad Al Harthy slipping to tenth behind James Sutton. Newly-crowned champion Michael Meadows meanwhile had a poor race, only finishing eleventh.
A great start to the second race for Tordoff saw the Clio Cup graduate storm around the outside into the lead ahead of Gelzinis. Butcher briefly third before a mistake gave the place to Barker, who soon went on to take second.
As Tordoff drove away to take the win by 3.8 seconds from Barker, a mistake by Gelzinis saw him run wide at Surtees, dropping him from podium contention to an eventual tenth place finish.
Lloyd briefly took third, but he too made a mistake, giving Butcher the place ahead of Plant, with Lloyd fighting back to fifth after a superb late move around the outside of 2011 champion Sutton at Dingle Dell.
Sutton took sixth ahead of Meadows, while in the Pro-Am 1 category, a mistake from Al Harthy gave Victor Jiminez the class win ahead of Pierce, with Al Harthy eventually retiring after contact with Olly Mortimer.
