Kent’s Esmee Hawkey enjoyed a perfect weekend at Silverstone in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB as she claimed pole position and two Pro-Am victories to open up a 19-point lead in the championship.

After a good showing in practice, the 22-year old performed well in qualifying where she battled a problem with the car but still managed to claim her class pole position ahead of rival and Team Parker Racing colleague Ryan Ratcliffe.

With a clean start to race one, she remained ahead of Ratcliffe before an early Safety Car bunched the field up. Thereafter she extended the gap over him and enjoyed a battle with Pro class competitor Dorian Mansilla, eventually getting ahead of him and finishing tenth overall as well as first in class.

It was a similar story for Sunday’s second race, where she again got away well and was in a battle with Pro driver Ross Wyle, repeating her result from the previous day with tenth overall and the Pro-Am victory, leaving her in the lead of the Drivers’ Championship standings.

After a hectic schedule, Esmee will now enjoy a break in Porsche Carrera Cup GB action before returning to the track with Team Parker Racing in the series at Snetterton over the weekend of October 23-25.

Speaking after the weekend, Hawkey said: “Friday practice felt good. We had old tyres on, so I was happy with the performance of the car and tried some things on setup, so we knew what we’d be dealing with in the races. Overall it was good, and I was getting faster through the session. I missed FP2 for personal reasons, so we went straight into qualifying.

“Unfortunately, we had some issues, so I had to come in without setting a time on my first set of tyres. We tried something to see if it cleared it but I decided I needed to do a lap so I got on with it and while it wasn’t the best session I managed to pip my rival Ryan by a few hundredths which meant I took home two points for pole out of a bad situation and knew I had a good car for the race.

“Race one I started 11th overall and was racing with the Pros. We had a Safety Car and I didn’t hear on the radio the restart was coming so I was a bit further back from everyone and knew if I got every lap perfect, I could catch up. I got past Dorian, so I was happy, I made a place, finished tenth, and the race pace compared to the Pros was good, so I was very happy with it and was aiming to make more positions on Sunday.

“Race two was good. I started well and was setting the same lap times as the leading Pros and was hoping to take ninth from Ross Wylie but had a big lock-up on lap five and from there I was managing the gap to Dorian behind me. It’s another win in Pro-Am and extending my lead in the championship. It’s been a good weekend for me with two wins, pole, fastest lap, and a lot of points to take home! I’m looking forward to a bit of a rest, so I’ll chill out then get back ready for Snetterton.

Images courtesy of www.pspimages.co.uk