It had been the chance he had been working for all year, to impress in one of the most fiercely competitive GT championships around, and David Pittard didn’t fail to do just that as he took to the wheel of a 450 bhp, £100,000 Porsche Carrera Cup Car at Silverstone.
“I had been buzzing for this day for weeks and weeks” revealed Pittard. “A chance to drive something with more than double the horse power I have ever driven, and with such a prestigious name as Porsche was a dream come true.”
Having never driven anything remotely resembling the Porsche Cup car, all eyes we firmly glued to the weather forecast in the lead up to the test, hoping for a dry day. However, this was Silverstone, a place which has a reputation for its own ‘micro-climate’.
“I was nervous at the beginning as all week the day had been predicted dry, but it was damp when we arrived.”
After meeting the team, David was introduced to his ‘office’ for the day and settled in behind the wheel of the 190 mph Supercar, a huge grin already apparent from beneath his helmet. With the team deciding the best option was to send the car out on wets, Pittard was lowered off the air jacks, the engine fired up, and the Hertfordshire based youngster was sent out on to the famous Silverstone circuit.
“It was a spine tingling moment. I was glad the car didn’t have the pit to car radio fitted as I’m sure they would only have heard me screaming with joy! The car was awesome. The power was incredible, absolutely relentless in its acceleration.”
As David thundered by the pit wall to complete his first lap, it was already apparent that the track was quickly drying, and the need to move from the wet tyres to the slick ones would be imminent. After letting David complete one further lap, the team called him in to make the tyre change.
“It didn’t take me long to get familiar with the car and after a short spell on wets the team pulled me in as the track started to dry and it was neither wets or slicks” commented David, a huge smile beaming across his face.
With the track drying further and the tyre change completed, David was soon back out on track, eager to impress.
“After waiting 10 minutes or so we went out on slick tyres. There were damp patches on the way into Copse, on the exit of Becketts and apex on Brooklands and Luffield. I just slowly built up heat in the tyres and confidence in the car to brake later, and get on the power earlier, and the times quickly came down.”
The Brunel students first lap past the pits was a quick one, confirming the decision to move to slicks was the correct, and he quickly set about homing in on the other Cup cars out on track. With every lap the Letchworth born race ace got quicker, and after a short pit stop to reset the tyre pressures, Pittard rejoined the track and was soon the fastest man out there, lapping up to a second faster than the more experienced drivers, something which hadn’t gone unnoticed on the pit wall.
“I returned out on a slightly drier track and a couple of seconds behind another car which gave me extra incentive to push on! Over the next 10 lap run I slowly caught him and managed to pass him after he made a mistake! This was my best run of the day and I felt completely calm with the car and just worked on my braking technique and lines as the Porsche requires such a different driving style.”
With fuel running low the team called David in for a full debrief of the running so far, and to provide him with a chance to review the data and video analysis from his last 2 runs.
“Jumping out of the car I felt very pleased with how the session had gone. I knew there were still area’s for improvement and was looking forward to reviewing the data. After a quick chat with the team boss I then returned to the truck for an in depth debrief with Jules my engineer. After analysis of the video and data there was defiantly room for improvement on my lines and throttle. I was pumped to get back out there!“
Unfortunately, whilst David was being debriefed the car developed a terminal mechanical failure at the hands of the driver who was sharing the car for the day with David, signalling a premature end to the day.
“I was frustrated to not have a second run after looking at all the analysis. But unfortunately these things happen. And it was nice to end on a high with my driving impressing team boss Stuart Parker.”
Despite the end being slightly less than was hoped for the fact remained that David had done himself extremely proud, and equally importantly impressed with his on and off track ability throughout the day, further underlying his talent as a future racing star.
“A massive thanks to Stuart Parker from Team Parker Racing, Jules for being excellent help, Podium PR for arranging the test and Roy Powell for taking some photos. Finally, thanks must go to Herts Business support Scheme who have made this year possible. It would be a dream come true to be out on the Porsche Carrera Cup grid next year, I will be working hard this winter to make that happen.”
