A slightly quieter week for the Porsche one-make cups across the globe this week, with three series hosting races and two series hosting their first official tests of the season along with their media day.
Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland
Credit: Porsche
A total of 31 drivers headed to the Czech Republic last week for a two-day test and media day for the 2019 Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland series.
3,613 laps were completed by the field of drivers with Larry ten Voorde topping the times with a lap of 1:33.008 after Porsche Junior Julien Andlauer led the way for most of the two days. Despite finishing fastest ten Voorde remains grounded ahead of the new season after telling racecam.de “one must not overvalue the tests.”
Reece Barr impressed as he made the switch from front-wheel-drive TCR cars to Porsche, setting the fastest time of the rookie field ahead of 2018-2019 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East vice-champion Berkay Besler and Sebastian Daum.
Porsche Junior Jaxon Evans was a regular in the top ten time as he splits his time with Carrera Cup Deutschland and Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup duties this year.
Carlos Rivas was fastest of the Am-Class ahead of Stefan Rehkopf and Georgi Donchev.
The 2019 season starts at Hockenheim 2-4 May and looks set to be another close run competition with Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup regulars also taking part including reigning champion Michael Amermuuler, Jaap van Lagen, and Dylan Pereira.
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia
Credit: Porsche
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia got their season underway as they supported the FIA Formula 1 World Championship on its milestone 1000th championship race.
The series returned to the Shanghai International Circuit after launching their 2019 season in March with the first official test and media day.
Martin Ragginger was fastest in qualifying to secure the first points of the year as he beat Will Bamber to pole position by just five thousandths of a second with a time of 2:06.937.
Ragginger led in to the first corner but was soon overtaken by Bamber through turn 2, while reigning champion Chris van der Drift leapt from fifth on the grid to also overtake Bamber. A fight between Bamber, Ragginger, van der Drift and Philip Hamprecht would keep fans entertained throughout the race.
Bamber held on for the win, giving the new Team Giltrap Group team a debut win in the Porsche Dealer Trophy ahead of Ragginger and Hamprect.
In the Pro-Am class polesitter Yuey Tan lost out of the restart after a safety car period as Francis Tjiaof collected the win with Bao Jinlong finishing in third place.
Porsche Carrera Cup Australia
Credit: Porsche
Jordan Love secured pole position as the 2019 Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia championship headed to Phillip Island with Liam Talbot topping the times in the TAG Heuer Pro-Am class.
Love would go on to make it a clean sweep of the weekend as he took two victories on Saturday, leading from start to finish in both races.
Love led home Dale Wood and Nick McBride in the opening race with Michael Almond sharing the podium with Love and Wood in the second race to secure a 1-2-3 finish for the Sonic team.
Warren Luff and Cameron Hill finished fifth and sixth in both races while Thomas Maxwell, David Wall, Cooper Murray and Josh Hunt rounded out the top-10 positions in race one. Murray, Wall, Maxwell and Steve Richards completed the top-10 in the second race.
In TAG Heuer Pro-Am Anthony Gilbertson took the first victory of the weekend ahead of Sam Shahin and Stephen Grove while Grove took the win in the second race ahead of Liam Talbot and Shahin.
Jordan Love would then make it three out of three on the Sunday as he once again led home Dale Wood and Michael Almond in a 1-2-3 finish.
The result of the weekend means that Love moves to within 21 points of championship leader Wood while McBride is a further 69 points behind in third.
Liam Talbot rebounded in the final race of the weekend to win the TAG Heuer Pro-Am class ahead of Grove and championship leader Anthony Gilbertson.
Glibertson leads the way in the championship with 435 points to Groves’ 394 and Talbot’s 374.
Porsche Carrera Cup Japan
Credit: Porsche
Porsche Carrera Cup Japan saw their championship get underway for the nineteenth year as the teams headed to Okayama International Circuit for the start of the 2019 season.
Yuta Kamimura claimed pole position and the first race win of the year ahead of Porsche Japan Junior Ukyo Sasahara and Takuka Otaki.
The race saw drama at the start when second-placed starter Ryo Ogawa failed to get away, unfortunately sixth-placed starter Satoshi Hoshino made contact with the car of the 2013 and 2014 champion putting them both out of the race and bringing out a safety car.
In the Gentleman class, pole sitter Hideki Nagai received a black flag after damage caused by the start line incident leaving Tomohide Yamaguchi to make the most of the incident and take the class victory ahead of Ikari and Kiyoshi Uchiyama.
The second race saw the heavens open and the race being declared a wet start, race-winner Kamimura start from pole position alongside Sasahara as the safety car brought the field around for a rolling start after three laps.
Kamimura controlled the pace for the start of the race but on the seventh lap was overtaken by Sasahara who would extend his lead to win the race by 3.755 seconds ahead of Kamimura and two-time champion Ryo Ogawa, whose made the most of the second race after the disastrous start.
In the Gentleman class Hideki Nagai claimed victory ahead of Ikari and Kiyoshi Uchiyama.
Rounds three and four of the Porsche Carrera Cup Japan take place at Fuji Speedway on 3-4 May.
Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia
Credit: Porsche
Reigning champion Lukas Sundhal topped the timing screens for the first test of the Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia season as 21 cars took to the oldest permanent race circuit in Sweden, Gelleråsen.
Regular racers were joined by royalty as 2010 Porsche GT3 Endurance Scandinavia champion, Prince Carl Philip (Bernadotte), Duke of Värmland, had a taste of current Porsche action ahead of his guest appearance in August at the same circuit. The Prince finished the day sixth fastest and just half a second down on the fastest time of the day by Sundhal.
