Perez’s Perfect Podium
18 year old Chesterfield Porsche Carrera Cup GB star Seb Perez grabbed a well earned podium place in his Amigos Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3 at Donington Park last weekend.
The up and coming Derbyshire racer took a second ProAm contender place this was the highlight after a tough weekend at the Leicestershire circuit for him and his Nottinghamshire Team mate George Gamble.
Perez knew coming to his local circuit he needed to get some points after an eventful weekend at Brand Hatch three weeks ago that saw him shunted off in first competitive race in the Porsche and a 10th in race two.
Perez’s qualifying session on Saturday was hampered by bad weather, it rained all session and there was no chance of the track drying, needless to say Perez in his usual style gave it all he had got and took the Amigos Porsche to finish second in the ProAm running and seventh on the grid seeing Team mate Gamble back of the grid after a technical issue with his car.
Race one saw Perez from 4th row of the grid struggle in the conditions and decide to gain points rather than a category win.
From the first lap the race many position changes took place, this was not without excitement and a spin coming out of Redgate sent Perez down the pack of the 23 starters and after an exhausting 23 laps was happy to see the chequered flag in 11th position and take fourth in ProAm.
A Sunday afternoon second race saw the 1.97 mile Donington track dry but very cold with 40 minutes and 33 laps ahead of the 23 cars and Perez starting from 6th on the grid.
As the lights went out he made a great start but on lap seven an infield spin could well have seen his race over but the Amigos Team Parker Racing race ace took a charge back into the pack for the next 26 laps and aided by a few safety car laps saw him take 8th place and despite the spin could well have seen a race podium or top five place.
Perez was still happy taking second and a maiden podium in the ProAm category in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB after 4 rounds.
An elated Perez after coming off the podium said
“It’s been a really good weekend overall and to take my first ever Carrera Cup podium at my home circuit is really the icing on the cake”.
“Race one was difficult yesterday (Saturday) so the focus was really on today and I had a really good pace from the off. The contact at the beginning was really unfortunate, not sure if Dan (Harper) had a well car to be honest and I went for a move which didn’t really work and went right to back of pack. When the safety car came out it helped us tremendously.
The weekend we had at Brands was a nightmare so to get the result here is fantastic”.
Perez leaves Donington 4th in the ProAm and 5th in the Rookie category of the Championship, Amigo Team Parker Racing are currently fourth in the Team Championship.
The next round of the season will see Perez travel to the iconic Italian circuit of Monza as a support race to the European Le Mans Series on the 12th/13th May and back on home soil again at Oulton Park on 9th / 10th June where all the action will be on ITV4.
Editorial and images by Paul Horton and Paul Horton Motorsport Photography
