20.08.07 TURVEY IMPRESSES IN PORSCHE GUEST CAR This weekend I was invited to Brands Hatch to race in the Porsche Carrera Cup Championship supporting the British Touring Cars. Having sampled the car at Snetterton as part of the McLaren Autosport Award test days at Snetterton, I was excited to get back in car and was looking forward to my first race with a roof over my head. With only two 45 minute test sessions on Friday to get used to the car on the challenging Brands Hatch Indy circuit it was going to be tough against the very competitive field of drivers that had competed all season in the Porsche. After steadily improving throughout testing I was able to adapt my driving style to the heavier Porsche car which requires a specific technique under braking to get the car set up for the corner. In qualifying it stayed dry in which I set a very competitive lap time only 0.2 seconds from pole position and placed me sixth on the grid. Although I was pleased with the lap time I had hoped to be further up the grid but was looking forward to the races where I could improve again. The team were very pleased with my qualifying performance and with how quickly I had adapted to driving the Porsche. In the first race I got an excellent start and was able to attack from the start. After a good race with the leaders, in the middle of the race rain started to fall on the windscreen which made me unsure on how hard to push. With more confidence in the car I would have been able to push harder in these extremely tricky conditions. However towards the end with light drizzle still falling on the windscreen I was able to lap quicker than the race winner. I managed to finish the race in sixth position which was to be my grid for the second race on Sunday. Although it had rained most of the day on Sunday at Brands Hatch it stopped before our race which allowed the track to dry up. We started the race on slicks even though it was still damp in places. Again I got a great start and was able to attack on the first lap moving up two positions into fourth. I then had good pace all race and kept up with the front runners for the whole race. I tried hard to get past and into a podium position but there were no opportunities to overtake without making contact so I held my position to finish an excellent fourth position only 1.6 seconds from the winner. Overall I had a great weekend and enjoyed the whole experience of racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup. I think we did a good job in the qualifying to be only 0.2 seconds from pole and then fourth in the second race on the leaders tail was a good result. The team were very impressed and pleased with my performance over the weekend. I would like to thank Porsche for allowing me to race the guest car. I will now focus on my Formula Renault Eurocup campaign in which I'm currently third in the driver's championship. << back to news