Team Parker have come away from Croft in a positive mood after Euan Hankey secured his maiden pole position and Stephen Jelley recorded his best finish to date – a second place.
Friday saw the team get off to a great start when Hankey topped the time sheets in the official test sessions with Jelley in third place just behind runaway championship leader Tim Harvey.
Buoyed by the Friday progress Hankey continued his form to take his first ever Porsche Carrera Cup pole position for the second race after just being pipped by Harvey for the first race pole. Team-mate Jelley would start from third and fourth for the two races on Sunday.
Jelley got the better of his team-mate in the first race of the day as Hankey struggled to get away from the line with too much wheelspin, by the first corner Jelley had jumped in to second place and was pushing Harvey. Hankey would drop down to fourth as a result of his start.
“I got really good drive from the cleaner side of the grid,” Jelley revealed after securing the second spot on the podium. “I tried to put down the lap times but I think the rear tyres were spent. I took time out of Tim Harvey who was leading, but the tyres went away and I thought I'd better consolidate.”
Hankey said: “Early on in the race I had nothing, but in the middle and end of the race I had really strong pace.”
The second race of the day would see Hankey line up on pole position for the start of the race, unfortunately he would be beaten away by Harvey on the start, dropping down to second place.
After putting pressure on race leader Harvey in the early part of the race, Hankey would be passed by championship contender Michael Caine as the tyres went away from him. A tough fight wih team-mate Jelley would see the youngster come out on top and finish the day third.
“That was the hardest race I've ever had to do,” said Hankey. “I had great pace early on but then the rear tyres just went completely. I've never experienced a car changing that much! This time the wheelspin wasn't so bad at the start, but I had to push so hard to keep up with Tim that maybe it destroyed my tyres.”
With two solid race results the two Team Parker drivers leapfrogged team-mate Glynn Geddie who had a weekend to forget after his rear wheels locking on the downshift in the first race and a spin in the second.
Team principal Stuart Parker summed up the three days in North Yorkshire: “We genuinely had much better pace this weekend, but we didn't capitalise as much as we could have done. Now we've got seven weeks before the next round at Snetterton to have a think and attack for wins in the second half of the year.”
