Porsche Cup Croft 14/07/2002

Sumpter takes fifth and fourth at Croft

Mark Sumpter finished fifth in the first of the pair of Michelin Porsche Cup races at Croft on Saturday (July 13). Racing his Paragon Porsche/Ultrafilter International Porsche GT3 Cup, Mark bounced back from an off in testing to maintain his title bid. 

Then, in the feature race on Sunday Mark was denied a shot at a podium finish when he was hit wide at the first corner, but fought back to take fourth place.

The weekend started badly for Mark when he spun off in testing on Friday afternoon. “Paul Mace spun in front of me and I tried to nip round him to get a clear lap. But the car got loose over the bumps and spun into the barriers,” said Mark.

Having only got in around 12 laps of testing, Mark went into qualifying playing catch up. “There was quite a bit of damage to the car and the team did well to get it repaired overnight.”

In the circumstances, fifth best time in qualifying was a decent performance, with Mark lapping less than a second away from pole position. “We lost two hours of running time in testing and had to try and make up for it in qualifying,” explained Mark.

The start of the sprint race was a very crowded affair as pole position holder Tim Sugden was very slow away. “Tim messed up the start, but by the time I realised and jinked to the left Nigel Rice had taken the position,” said Mark. That left Mark in sixth place on the opening lap but that became fifth when team mate Adrian Slater spun out of the lead on the second lap.

Into the middle of the race, Mark started to close back in on Rice, but had Simon Pullan on his tail and this trio became a quartet when Phil Hindley spun out of the lead and rejoined right behind Rice. Now, the four cars ran in a close formation all the way to the flag, but there was no chance for Mark to make up places.

“I thought I’d pick up the pieces when Phil and Nigel were battling, but there weren’t any opportunities. At least I’m into the feature race with a decent start position,” he added.

Mark’s run in the feature race was badly affected by a first lap clash that sent him wide and down the order, leaving him to fight back up to fourth place by the end of the race.

“I got hit by Paul Mace at the first corner and then sent me into a half-spin,” said Mark. “I just caught it, but everyone went past me. I lost three places and that really wrecked my chance of a podium finish.”

Mark was now back in eighth place and spent the rest of the race making up lost ground. With Nigel Rice and Tim Sugden both retiring, Mark made up two places and he raced hard to overtake both Mace and Simon Pullan. “I definitely drove the car better today,” said Mark, “but the first corner contact was a real shame.”

Sumpter still lies second to Cole in the points table, with the next event at Snetterton on July 27/28.