Eastwood impresses in Snetterton

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Charlie Eastwood showed that he is a match for anybody in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB with a pair of second-place finishes at Snetterton.

After scoring a top-ten at Silverstone in the Supercup two weeks ago, the Porsche Scholar enjoyed his best weekend to date in Norfolk as he pressurised series leader Dan Cammish throughout the first race, adding a fastest lap for good measure.

Returning to the circuit where he enjoyed his greatest success in single-seaters, Eastwood had earmarked the 2.9 mile circuit as one to make his mark and was duly on the pace from the word go in Friday practice.

The young Northern Irishman’s qualifying was compromised by traffic at Oulton Park and Croft, but there were no such problems for Eastwood at Snetterton, lining up second on the grid for both races. However, he felt there was still more time in the car and was determined not to allow Cammish to run away with it in race one.

When the lights turned green, Eastwood doggedly pursued his Redline Racing team-mate until the intervention of an errant lapped car handed Cammish a reprieve, eventually finishing 1.7 seconds behind.

“We got off to a good start and really started to push Dan. We were able to get close to him and challenge him for the lead, when with about four laps to go, we caught up with a backmarker and got tangled up with him. Dan got past him on the straight and I got stuck in the corner, which cost me a second and unfortunately that was my chance gone”

A small mistake at Williams on the opening lap of race two meant Eastwood would face a tough ask to dislodge Cammish from the top spot, but got his head down and drove a clean race to finish just 1.5 seconds in arrears.

In the second race again we had another good start into second, but we just went in a little hot and got a big bit of oversteer, which gave Dan a two second lead. We were able to close the gap to the end of the race and we were four hundredths off the fastest lap, but there just wasn’t enough to challenge for the win. Still, to be pushing Dan is a great position to be starting the second half of the year because we know that he’s a good benchmark for the top five in Supercup, so we’re really happy with that.

In only his fifth weekend in the championship, a first Carrera Cup win is now firmly in Eastwood’s sights, although he’s not lost sight of how far he has already come in his new discipline.

“Of course you always want to win and you always want a little more, but you have to be realistic and see what you’re up against. To be right up at the sharp end against guys with Dan’s experience and get fastest lap in race is great for my confidence – it’s been a really good weekend.”

Eastwood’s next outing comes in two weeks’ time as the championship heads north to Knockhill in Scotland, where the youngster will look to continue his strong form.