Michael Meadows won the second Porsche Carrera Cup GB race of the weekend at Knockhill to ensure he claimed a maximum points haul from the weekend, courtesy of two pole positions two wins and two fastest laps.
Additionally, problems for main title rival Jonas Gelzinis allowed Meadows to open up a 23 point championship lead with six races remaining, putting him in prime position to successfully defend his title.
As the lights went out Meadows made a textbook start to lead the field into the first corner while behind contact between Rory Butcher and Dean Stoneman saw the former take a trip through the gravel and drop to the back of the pack. Ever the opportunist, Dan Lloyd took full advantage to sweep around the outside of the delayed Stoneman and assume second place with the Redline driver shuffled back to third.
Initially the lead trio ran closely together but as the race reached the halfway point Stoneman began to put Lloyd under a huge amount of pressure which allowed Meadows to break clear and build an unassailable leading margin.
At the flag, the gap was 5.2 seconds as Meadows claimed his first double victory since Oulton Park back in June and the first “perfect weekend” of his Carrera Cup career.
He said: “It’s great to have dominated the weekend. There was a bit of pressure from Dan in the first few laps. It has taken a while to put a weekend like this together and this is a massive step for me in championship terms. I never wanted to let up in that race and I was working very hard.”
Lloyd defended resolutely to bag his second podium finish of the weekend.
He said: “That’s mega. I’m really pleased with the result. We’ve struggled a bit this weekend, so it’s great to get a second and a third. Dean was pushing me massively over the second half of the race.”
Stoneman was third ahead of James Birch who secured his best Carrera Cup finish to date with a fourth place finish.
In Pro-Am1 Dan De Zille completed a double class victory after passing long time category leader Victor Jiminez late in the race, with a well-timed move at the Hairpin. George Brewster followed De Zille through to take second with Jiminez forced to settle for third.
De Zille said: “That was a perfect race. I just drove my own race and it came to me. I struggled at the hairpin in the first race, but worked something out over lunch and was able to pass Victor there and take the lead.”
Butcher was eighth and a lap down after being forced to pit for repairs after his first corner contact with Stoneman.
Gelzinis was ninth after he was forced to pit to replace a flat spotted tyre in the closing stages.
For the full race classification, see here.
