Britcar GT - Rockingham 2nd - 3rd May 2009

Double victory at Rockingham for Paragon Porsche

Mark Sumpter and Adrian Slater claimed a superb double victory in Britcar GT when they dominated the Rockingham weekend (2/3 May) in the Paragon Porsche-entered Porsche 911GT3RSR.  

Despite the event being their first races at Rockingham for eight years, they beat several faster cars to win twice at the head of a very strong field. "It was a fantastic weekend and a really good team effort," said Sumpter. 

"We got the car working really well and qualified fourth fastest, which was as good as we could have hoped for," said Sumpter. Ahead of them on the grid were three sports-racing cars, so their position was best of the genuine production-based GT cars. 

For the opening 90-minute race, Slater took the first stint and raced for 50 minutes as the team waited to see if there would be a safety car period. Although that did not happen, they moved into the lead before making a late pit stop. When Sumpter rejoined the race he was running second, but caught and passed the leading car with 25 minutes to run. "For about 15 minutes he stayed with me, but then we went clear and won by about 50 seconds," said Sumpter. "That was a very good result for us." 

Sumpter then started the second race on Sunday from pole position and led from the start. The Mosler of Martin Short then took the lead, but Sumpter ran on his tail until the mid-race pit stops. Slater duly took over and, as the pair of Moslers hit trouble, was able to move ahead and take the chequered flag to complete a great weekend for the Paragon team. 

Sumpter paid tribute to the hard work of the Paragon crew and also his co-driver. "Adrian and I are very closely matched; we're within tenths of a second of each other on lap times. The car is fantastic to drive and it's now running with more than 500bhp." 

The Britcar GT season continues at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium over the last weekend of June when Andy Purdie will join Sumpter and Slater on the driving squad.