Frustrating weekend for Octane Finance-backed Harry King at Croft

Octane Finance-backed racer Harry King endured a frustrating weekend on track as the second half of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB season kicked off at Croft.

The talented youngster headed into the weekend hoping to fight for victory in his Team Parker Racing-run car and showed front-running pace in practice before qualifying in fourth place for race one after a small error saw him run off track.

As soon as race one kicked off, Harry’s plan was clear as he put rival Will Martin under pressure on the opening lap, diving ahead at Sunny In to go third having already tried his hand around the outside at Tower.

Contact from Martin at the hairpin then undid Harry’s good work, and would also lead to a puncture that forced him to bring the #19 car in for an unscheduled pitstop.

Luckily, Harry was able to make the stop behind the safety car which kept him on the lead lap and he charged back up the order when racing resumed - coming from dead last to cross the line in eighth place.

On his way through the field however, Harry was deemed to have exceeded track limits, meaning an additional five seconds was added to his time and dropping him down to twelfth spot.

As has been the case numerous times in the past, Harry produced an astonishing opening lap in race two to jump up six places and was running in fifth place when he was powerless to avoid a tyre that had been dislodged from a trackside stack by a car in front.

The resultant contact damaged the exhaust and meant Harry had no option to retire the car but he will now hope to bounce back quickly as the series heads straight from Croft to Silverstone for the next round of the year.

"It’s been a massively frustrating weekend," he said. "We arrived at Croft confident of fighting for victory and instead, we suffered in both races through things that were outside my control and which I could do nothing about.

"The contact in race one ruined any chance of fighting for victory and although the other driver got a penalty, that doesn’t give me back the result. Then in race two, it was clear we had good pace but that counted for nothing when a tyre stack suddenly appeared in front of me and left with nowhere to go.

"I’m glad we go straight to Silverstone so I can put this event behind me, and hopefully luck will be on my side and we can try to replicate the strong results we enjoyed last season."