In2Racing’s Daniel McKay overcame an adverse start to achieve a momentous class victory in only his third Porsche Carrera Cup GB appearance in the final race of 2015 on the globally renowned Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit (10-11 October).
Brands Hatch was bathed in beautiful autumnal sunshine for free practice on Friday (9 October) and conditions remained stable for the duration of the weekend, meaning that both In2Racing drivers, Tom Bradshaw and McKay, had ample opportunity to learn the track and fettle their cars’ setups.
Seat time was particularly important for the BSS Industrial-supported McKay, who had only competed on Brands Hatch’s extended 2.3mile Grand Prix configuration once before in a preparatory outing in the Dutch Supercar Challenge.
The world-famous Kent circuit is known for rewarding an attacking driving style and McKay’s times tumbled as his confidence grew, although the Greenwich resident was still disappointed to conclude FP1 in 12th overall and third in Pro-Am1.
The young Scot felt there was far more to find but was unable to clock up any meaningful miles during second practice when he speared into the barriers at high-speed after his car snapped from under him at the top of Paddock Hill Bend.
Bradshaw, meanwhile, shone in the dimming early evening light. The Bolton-domiciled racer made gradual setup changes in search of mid-corner predictability throughout the day and found chunks of time to go fourth fastest in first practice and sixth in the day’s second 45-minute session.
As a result, he went into qualifying on Saturday (10 October) with an optimised setup and confident that he would be able to extract more lap time to remain inside the top six and within reach of the podium places, therefore he was somewhat underwhelmed when he ended the day in ninth.
McKay’s incident, which occurred on his third flying lap, left the #91 Porsche in a very sorry state and In2Racing’s skilled mechanics worked through the night to complete a full frontend rebuild.
A valiant and unrelenting effort produced remarkable results and there was no evidence of McKay’s trip into the wall when the sun rose over Kent on Saturday (10 October) morning.
A lack of practice mileage placed McKay on the back foot and the early phase of qualifying was treated as a shakedown and it was only in the final throes of the 30-minute session that McKay took his BSS Industrial-liveried machine to third fastest in class, in among the Pro-Am1 title contenders.
In race one, Bradshaw hoped to move forwards from seventh on the grid, but got squeezed as the field plunged down Paddock Hill Bend for the first time, tumbling to tenth on the road, while his younger teammate fell one position to 14th on the opening tour.
Bolton-based Pro, Bradshaw, remained on the outskirts of the top ten, sat in Paul Rees’s wake for the most part. There was never more than four tenths between the brawling pair and Rees eventually succumbed to the pressure from the In2Racing contender, who finished eighth at the flag.
In Pro-Am1, McKay had Parr Motorsport’s Mark Cole in his sights and the recovering Jack Falla filling his rear-view mirrors and the trio ran nose-to-tail until contact with the rear end of McKay’s BSS Industrial machine sent the Redline Racing driver into a spin.
No longer under threat from behind, McKay took chunks out of Cole’s advantage to initiate a nail-biting tussle, but something had to give and the In2Racing rookie fell out of the running when attempting an overtake on the 17th and final blast through Westfield.
The final race of the 2015 Porsche Carrera Cup GB got off to a dramatic start, as Falla slid sideways on the entry to Paddock Hill Bend. Miraculously, the entire pack managed to avoid the wayward Redline Racing driver and Bradshaw made good use of the confusion to snatch seventh to be the meat in a Stephen Jelley-Rees sandwich.
Bradshaw snapped at Jelley’s heels incessantly but his Team Parker rival never wobbled and the order remained the same to the flag, although sparks flew between McKay and his fellow Pro-Am1 drivers further down the order.
Having initially dropped away from the fight for top honours between Jordan Witt and Ignas Gelzinis, McKay reeled in the dicing duo and, perfectly poised to snatch the lead, the former Legends racer made a move for first position on the final lap, achieving his maiden class victory and a fourth podium in only three Carrera Cup GB appearances.
“The guys at In2Racing have done a fantastic job all weekend,” said a jubilant McKay. “To start off in the wall is never great, but to come away from Brands Hatch with a first Pro-Am1 win is perfect! I’m over the moon and I knew I could do it if I kept up the momentum, although the events of earlier in the weekend dented my hopes. In2Racing’s attitude has been incredible and lifted my spirits and what we’ve all done is incredible. It justified their 34-hour day on Saturday and they didn’t just piece the car back together, they improved for the races.”
In2Racing Team Principal, Nick Dudfield, said: “The effort was worthy of winning ‘Team of the Weekend’. Daniel (McKay) winning his first Pro-Am1 race was the objective and he delivered. Tom (Bradshaw) has also driven very well given his limited mileage and a lack of seat time contributed to our qualifying result, but we still moved up in the races. The guys at BSS Industrial must be very happy with what Daniel has achieved with his slightly battered car. I think the entire team would back me up by saying that win was for Paul McKay in particular. The team wanted to win for him. We feel he had all the ingredients to have a run at the Pro-Am2 title and we would have loved to have celebrated a championship with him.”
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