27.06.06 Bitter sweet weekend in Ireland for RPM RPM's Porsche squad was tested to the extreme out in Ireland over the weekend truly experiencing the ups and downs of motorsport. The friday test saw car 17 demonstarting strong early pace with Phillip Glew setting the pace for the RPM drivers closely followed by team mate Hunter Abbott who despite having never been to the circuit before was really pushing Glew. The picture was not as bright for car 96 who after running in a gearbox suffered a broken driveshaft which removed them from the dry running on friday with both Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer having completed next to no laps on a circuit they had not yet been to. Qualifying held on saturday saw Bradley Ellis take car 96 to an impressive 4th place in class and 7th overall despite having to carry 60kg of sucess balast. He was closely followed by car 17 of Hunter Abbott who was running on wet tyres which appeared to be struggling toward the end of the session in comparison to Ellis who had opted for intermediates which were improving lap by lap. Qualifying 2 saw car 96 and 17 swap places in the order with Phil Glew running in 3rd for the duration of the session and Alex Mortimer in 4th. However in the dieing minutes in became evident that the tyre of choice was now slicks with the end result being that the slick shod Marcos and Morgan bumped the RPM cars down to 5th and 6th in class. Race 1 saw dissappointment for car 17 with gearbox problems ending its race early. In comparision car 96 was making fast progress toward the front of the field in the hands of Ellis and Mortimer. In the final minutes of the race car 96 in the hands of Mortimer was able to run a pace unmatched by anyone else which saw him rapidly close in on the 2nd place trackspeed Porsche. With one lap left to run Mortimer had squeezed past which secured car 96's 3rd podium of the year and moved them to the outright lead of the championship. Race 2 saw a poor start by Mortimer drop car 96 down the order and an early spin for car 17 hampering Phil Glews effort of reaching the front. With 15 minutes run the RPM cars were in tandom closely followed by the Motorbase Porsche of Mark Cole and bottled up behind an overdefensive Trackspeed car who was hampering the RPM cars progress. Mortimer made light contact with the Trackspeed car which later proved to be fatal as it damaged a radiator. Phil Glew In an effort to pass made contact with the Trackspeed car taking the pair out of the result. This gave way to a safety car period where car 96 made its driver change. It was at this point that the leeking radiator became evident. In effort to get the car to the finish Ellis drove at a conservative pace and held onto 5th place in the race. However with 2 minutes remaining the team took the decision to stop the car and minimise any possible damage a heart wrenching end to the weekend for the both the team and drivers alike. This result saw car 96 bumped from the top spot in championship down to second but still the lead Porsche. The championship now moves to Snetterton for the next round where the team has set its sight on nothing less then race wins. << back to news