Group C GTP at Spa 18/05/2008

Sumpter out of luck at Spa

Despite being the fastest driver of the weekend, Mark Sumpter was out of luck in the opening races of the Group C Racing season at Spa-Francorchamps on 17/18 May when engine failure put his Porsche 962 out.  

The Paragon Porsche team headed to the famous Belgian track to enter the Le Mans-style cars of Sumpter and Andy Purdie in two races, a 30-minute sprint race and a 90-minute enduro race.  "It was a fantastic weekend right up to and including qualifying," said Mark, who turned in a spectacular performance in qualifying to take pole position by a massive margin.  

Qualifying started wet and then the track began to dry, so running intermediate tyres proved to be absolutely the right choice. "It just dried out so quickly on the last couple of minutes and my last lap was nine seconds faster than the previous best, which put me on pole by over seven seconds," said Mark. Purdie led the chase with second fastest time, while third fastest was former Le Mans winner Andy Wallace in a Silk Cut-liveried Jaguar.  

The ever-changing weather also hit the opening race as a downpour while the cars were on the green flag lap sent both Sumpter and Purdie into the pits rather than to the front of the grid. Sumpter opted to change to intermediate tyres, while Purdie elected to fit full wet tyres and they both lost 90 seconds to the leading car. However, once back on track Mark was catching the leaders at 12s a lap until his Porsche's engine failed on the fourth lap and he was sidelined for the rest of the weekend. 

Meanwhile, as the track dried out, Purdie was forced to later retire as his treaded tyres proved unsuitable.The Paragon team now focused all its efforts on Purdie's car for the second race and after a steady start, which left him in sixth place, he battled back to second. Unfortunately, a problem with the re-fuelling rig during the mid-race pit-stop left the car short of fuel and Purdie coasted to a halt with just 10 minutes of the race remaining.  

"I was delighted to be on the pace in my first race in the car," said Purdie, while Sumpter had clearly been the weekend's benchmark, taking pole by the biggest margin of his racing career.