Porsche Cup Snetterton 13/08/2006

Purdie back in the points for Paragon

Andy Purdie returned to points scoring form at Snetterton (12/13 August) as he challenged for a podium finish in the Paragon Porsche entry in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.

Although he spun out of the opening race in dreadful conditions, Andy fought back into contention in the second race and crossed the line within half a second of a podium position in the pro-am category.  

After two non-finishes due to mechanical problems in the previous event at Donington Park, Andy was keen to get back to finishing strongly in his Porsche 911GT3 Cup car at the Norfolk track.  In qualifying, the leading pro-am drivers were incredibly evenly matched as less than a quarter of a second covered the top five cars. However, by the time of the opening race, towards the end of Saturday afternoon, the weather conditions were very bad with heavy rain and strong winds. 

There was also a lot of oil on the track from a previous race.  Unfortunately, Purdie was to be one of the victims of the conditions after five laps as he battled for fourth place in the pro-am category. "I was on the outside of Richard Williams into the first corner and we were still side by side into the next corner," explained Andy. "As he moved across, I just got a wheel onto the grass and the car went sideways. I was just a passenger!"  

Although the car hit the tyre barrier, damage was relatively light and restricted to front and rear bumper units, so it was readied for the second race on Sunday afternoon.  Starting the race from the back of the grid, Andy was soon making up places on the dry track and worked his way right through to ninth place. 

At the flag, he was right on the tail of Mike Richards, who took the final pro-am podium position. "The team worked really hard to fix the car and they gave me a great set-up for the race," said Andy. "I really, really enjoyed the race and after three non-finishes I wanted to finish more than anything. 

But if there had been one more lap I'm sure I could have attacked Mike Richards!"  The Carrera Cup will continue at the Knockhill track in Scotland over the weekend of 2/3 September.