Rebelleo Motorsport secures 7th place in wild Porsche Carrera Cup Debut at Donington Park.
Round One at Donington Park promised an exhilarating inaugural race to the season, highlighted by the narrowest margins ever seen in Porsche Carrera Cup, with the entire grid being covered by a mere seven tenths of a second, Abbie only four tenths behind pole position.
Qualifying posed challenges with frigid temperatures, emphasising the criticality of optimising tire pressure and temperature for both front and rear axles simultaneously. Despite efforts, Abbie was only able to secure P10 in Pro/Am, seven tenths away from pole.
Race Day was a day of two halves, with the morning session canceled due to heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding. Following the delay, proceedings commenced around 2 pm, albeit with a condensed program, featuring only one race instead of the planned two.
Following the rain’s cessation and the emergence of sunshine, the track conditions improved enough to allow slick tyres on a drying track.
Abbie got a great start and gained a position into Redgate, moving up to P9. However, the closely contested nature of the grid with the tricky conditions inevitably led to incidents, with several cars spinning off track down Crainer Curves, narrowly avoiding contact with Abbie as they rejoined the track. Consequently, Abbie’s windscreen became heavily obscured with mud, compromising visibility for the remainder of the race, effectively driving blind with no references or depth perception.
She battled on and moved forward a further two more places to bring the car home P7 in Pro/Am in a damage limitation race.
A huge thank you to all of the TOCA paddock and Marshals for working incredibly hard to make sure we were able to go racing, and to all of the hardy supporters who waded through mud and floods to come and say Hello!
We will see you all again in two weeks at Brands Hatch.
"It was a slightly frustrating weekend overall. We showed great pace in Free Practice 2 but couldn't translate that into Qualifying and unfortunately a mud covered windscreen put a stop to any progress in the race! I'm happy to have been able to bring the car home in 7th place despite the difficult conditions."
