Reigning Renault UK Clio Cup champion Josh Files has hailed his maiden outing in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship as a success after taking the series guest car to a pair of top five finishes at Silverstone.
On his first race outing on the BTCC package this season, Files adapted well to his Porsche 991 in Friday testing, and went on to qualify fifth on the grid for both races, four tenths of a second off pole.
Running with Team Parker Racing, Files put in an impressive drive to take fifth in the first race before going one better with fourth in race two, his best lap in the second encounter being just over a tenth of a second shy of the outright best.
Files leaves the weekend happy to have been battling in the top five throughout the weekend, and feels he could have been fighting for podium finishes if he had got some time in the car prior to the meeting.
“I would have loved to have had some testing in the car before the meeting, as I think with a day or two in preparation I could have really stuck it to the front-runners. I’m not going to say we would have won, but we would have been there or thereabouts,” Files told TCF.
“Having said that, we’re only losing at most three tenths of a second a lap, but over the longer Porsche races that’s ten seconds. It’s not huge for a first weekend in the car, and therefore I’m very happy. I can’t argue with our performance.”
Files says the main learning curve for the weekend came with finding the right set-up and best driving style to get the most out of his tyres over the longer Porsche races, and accepts it’s something they weren’t quite able to get on top off over the weekend.
“Yesterday at the end of the race we were strong, but it was too late, so then we made a tyre change for the second race which meant the tyres were strong at the start, meaning I was with the pack, but then they went off really quickly. There’s a happy medium in there somewhere that with more time I’m sure we would find,” he reflected.
While Files has previously expressed a desire to race in Australia in the near future, he admits the Carrera Cup GB is a serious option for 2015.
“There’s a potentially very good deal in place that would mean we could do the Carrera Cup GB series and more, but truthfully we really don’t know at the moment,” Files concluded. “We’re looking at a lot of avenues but the likelihood is I’ll be racing in a Porsche next year.”