Porsche Cup Snetterton 28/07/2002

Sumpter on the podium twice at Snetterton

Mark Sumpter took two podium finishes in the eighth round of the Michelin Porsche Cup at Snetterton over the weekend (July 27/28). In a pair of action-packed races run in scorching temperatures, Mark raced hard to take a brace of third places. 

Importantly, the weekend takes the Paragon Porsche/Ultrafilter International-backed car to within seven points of championship leader Mark Cole.

Mark posted fourth best time in Saturday’s qualifying session, moving up from fifth when Mark Cole’s time was disallowed after his car was adjudged to be underweight.Pre-race testing on Friday had been difficult for Mark who first hit trouble on his third lap. 

A detached water hose sprayed water onto a front wheel and he suffered a big moment at the high speed Coram Corner. “That cost me most of the session,” reckoned Mark. When he got out later, another water pipe fractured and caused a big spin at Riches. “It stopped about a foot from the barrier,” said a relieved Mark. 

In qualifying, Mark improved his time late in the session to move up the order. However, he was still half a second away from the pole position time set by team mate Adrian Slater. “I don’t know where the time is at the moment. I’ll have to have a look at the data, but I’m not sure where to find half a second.” 

In qualifying, soaring temperatures of around 30 degrees caused in-car temperatures to hit a massive 53 degrees, making life very difficult for the drivers.

The sprint race proved to be a thriller with Mark battling through to finish on the podium after an enthralling 14 laps.Off the grid Mark didn’t get a good start and dropped to sixth behind Luke Stevens and Nick James. 

Knowing that he had to get back in touch with the leading quartet as quickly as possible, Mark pulled off a brave move at the end of the main straight on the opening lap. “I did them both on the brakes at the end of the straight,” said Mark after an excellent move. 

That put him into fourth place and he was soon closing the gap to the leading trio of Nigel Rice, Adrian Slater and Phil Hindley. In turn, Mark had Stevens chasing after him as the top five pulled clear of the rest of the field.With the top three racing wheel to wheel, Mark thought he might pick up some places. “I thought there was a chance when the three of them were dicing,” said Mark who watched the battle from very close quarters. 

However, the deciding moment of the race came on the ninth lap when Slater ran wide at Riches and spun. That delayed Hindley and Sumpter enough to allow Rice to make a clear break.Now, Mark was chasing Hindley, but in such evenly matched cars there was no real chance to challenge for second. “I did think at one stage that I could get Phil,” said Mark. 

However, third place was where he finished, which allowed him to pull a few championship points back on series leader Mark Cole.

Feature Race

The feature race got off to a dramatic start when Cole spun at the first corner. Mark was edged back to third by the fast-starting Stevens and slotted into fifth place. He was soon embroiled in a mighty battle for third with Stevens and Slater, but also had Cole and Paul Mace closing in from behind.

With Rice spinning out on lap six, Mark moved up to fourth but was now struggling with the handling of his car. "I ran wide over the grass at Sear and that ripped the splitter off the car," said Mark, who now started to suffer major understeer as a result.

Undeterred, he pushed on and kept up the pressure on Stevens once Slater had squeezed through into second place. "I kept getting on the outside of him, but he was doing a really good job of defending," admitted Sumpter.With Cole still on his tail they headed into the final lap line-astern, but Cole dived through into fourth at Sear Corner. Then, into the last corner of the race, Cole hit the back of Stevens and they both spun. 

Mark had to brake hard to avoid getting involved, but picked his way through the confusion to take third. However, as Cole tried to rejoin the track, he hit the side of Mark's car and badly damaged a rear wheel, so Mark had to fight the crabbing car for the last quarter mile of the race to get across the line in third place.

With Cole excluded from the results for the incident with Stevens, Mark now lies just seven points behind in the championship race. The action continues at Knockhill in Scotland over the weekend of August 10/11.