Autosport – 18 April 2019

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Chamberlain’s

Porsche 935

Carroll (left) with

Christoforou

66 AUTOSPORT.COM 18 APRIL 2019

GT CUP

Ex-Jaguar Formula E driver and A1GP

title winner Adam Carroll made

his return to the GT Cup in the

championship’s season opener

at Donington Park last weekend.

The Northern Irishman,

who carried Team Ireland to the

2008-09 A1GP title, had not raced

competitively since driving for the

Jaguar squad in the 2016-17 FE season.

Carroll, 36, contested a GT Cup

race for the first time since 2015 last

weekend, sharing an FF Corse Ferrari

488 Challenge with Laki Christoforou.

The pair claimed a best result

of fifth overall plus two GTC

class wins from the four races.

“I’m excited to return to FF Corse,”

said Carroll. “It’s a team I’ve achieved

success with in the past in British GT,

and even more so at a time when

they’ve strengthened in all areas and

are putting the building blocks in

place to compete internationally

in GT racing in the near future.”

REPLACEMENT HOWSON SHINES

Matt Howson, the 2015 LMP2 class

winner in the Le Mans 24 Hours, was

also part of FF Corse’s Donington

line-up. He took the place of regular

driver Dan de Zille, sharing with

de Zille’s father Graham.

Howson, who will race for KCMG-

Honda in TCR Japan this season, has

spent recent years coaching drivers.

“It’s good to be out in the car this

weekend,” he said after finishing third

in the GTC class in both endurance

races. “I’ll be at all the rounds helping

Graham and Dan, so there’s a good

chance I’ll be out again as a substitute.”

CHAMBERLAIN’S PORSCHE RETURN

Another driver to return to GT Cup

action was Richard Chamberlain, who

was piloting his distinctive Porsche

935 after a 20-month rebuild. Fire

tore through the unique car during

the 2017 Silverstone round and

Chamberlain missed the entire 2018

season while he repaired the car.

“The car was destroyed, from the

B-post back,” Chamberlain said.

“I think any normal person would

have thrown it away. The aluminium

castings and plates and caps had all

melted. They were destroyed, so we

thought, ‘We’ve got to rebuild it and

we may as well try and make it better.’

“The wheelbase is 320mm longer

and it’s now mid-engined like the

latest 991 RSRs. The gearbox is at the

rear too, so the weight distribution is

much better and the aero has been

cleaned up. It’s taken 20 months to do

it, but we’ve done it all in our shed at

home and I’m really proud of it.”

Chamberlain said he faced a “near

vertical learning curve” having not

raced during the rebuild process,

but won three of the four races.

DAN MASON AND KYRAN GIBBONS

CARROLL AND CHAMBERLAIN

RETURN TO GT CUP ACTION

This was

Carroll’s first

GT Cup race

since 2015

NATIONAL NEWS