AL-2 Teknik/PyroDry Porsche has finished inside the top-six in opening four races, Ross Wylie and Matthew Graham claimed sixth place in their Valluga Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport in the latest round of the British GT Championship at Donington Park (29 May).
Competing in the GT4S class and sharing the driving duties of the AL-2 Teknik UK/PyroDry supported Porsche in the three-hour race, Wylie, from Thornhill near Dumfries, along with Stanfordham-based co-driver Graham, battled for a podium placing.
But their AL-2 Teknik/PyroDry Porsche was not ideally suited to the 2.49-mile Grand Prix circuit and despite briefly leading the event, the duo had to be content with a sixth place finish. Wylie ran sixth after 30mins, pitting to Graham under Safety Car conditions who resumed fifth.
Graham sliced his was up to third with just over one-hour gone and into the lead approaching mid-distance prior to Ross taking over again. With around 50mins remaining, Graham was back in the car but was unable to climb the leaderboard due to a brake issue although Matty took the chequered flag just 0.2secs behind the fifth-place class finisher and less than 10secs off a GT4S podium placing.
Ross now lies third in the GT4 Silver Cup standings with Matty, who missed the opening two races, is sixth. The next two rounds of the series are held at Snetterton over 25-26 June.
Ross Wylie (GB)
Age: 30
Born & Lives: Thornhill nr Dumfries, Scotland.
“We didn’t quite have the ultimate pace plus we had a 15secs ‘success’ pit-stop time penalty which didn’t help our cause.
“But we’re still in the title hunt and hopefully Snetterton will be better for us.
“I started the race with new brakes but by the end of the race, the brake pads were badly worn. We were also lacking straight line speed compared to the other Porsche. So a combination of little things added up to us not being quite as competitive as we wanted and needed to be.”
Matty Graham (GB)
Age: 25
Born: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland
Lives: Stanfordham, Northumberland
“We can be pretty happy with sixth place. We had that success penalty from Silverstone and our car struggled a bit around Donington so it was a pretty good end result. The team did a good job, the car was pretty solid.
“I didn’t get to push the car in my last stint which was unfortunate as we were running out of brakes.
“The Porsche’s fourth top-six finish sets us up well for the next rounds at Snetterton where we’ll have no success penalty to worry about at our final pit-stop. Some of our quicker rivals may also get more weight ballast added.”
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