Archie Hamilton returned to the track in rounds three and four of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at the weekend (June 26-27), taking a sixth-place finish in the Pro-Am category in the second race at Brands Hatch.
Brands Hatch’s unique combination of dips, cambers, fearsome corners, and hills means it is one of the world’s favourite racing circuits and continues to go from strength to strength. For the second time since the COVID-19 pandemic, Archie raced in front of crowds to which he shared his delight to on social media prior to the weekend: “There’s always such a great crowd and atmosphere here at Brands Hatch which I often call my home circuit, I can’t wait to get out there and put on a show.”
Saturday saw Archie take to the track in qualifying to put the car 16th overall, ahead of Sunday’s opening race. A strategy gamble for Sunday’s first race saw Hamilton struggle on the wet tyres whilst the rest of the field raced on slicks. The unfortunate loss of pace and pit-stop to change to the slick’s meant Archie finished 7th in the Pro-Am category lining him up on the last spot on the grid for Sunday’s second event.
With a track temperature of 19°C and humid greasy conditions to contend with, Archie had nothing to lose and found the pace to gain two places in the opening stint of the 34-lap race to move up to 18th. Hamilton was able to gain a further place up the grid to 17th overall by lap two, driving amongst other competitive Pro-Am and Amateur drivers. A racing incident further up the field amongst the Pro category drivers; Plato and King on lap 11, saw Hamilton move up to 16th overall and gain a 1.5 second gap over those behind him. A late pit-stop by Pro driver Orton on lap 32 saw Archie cross the line 15th overall and 6th place in the Pro-Am category.
The result of both races combined means Archie sits seventh in the Pro-Am championship standings with 13 points and plenty more opportunities to move higher up the table. Archie will be back in action in the series over the weekend of July 31-1 August, racing in support of the British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park.
Archie Hamilton
“Saturday was probably one of the toughest qualifying sessions I’ve had, P16 is not where we expected to be, but we just didn’t hook it up and around Brands Hatch, 1-2 tenths can mean a lot of places on the grid.
“For Sunday’s first race we decided to take the gamble on the wet tyres, there was rain at the time, so we decided to not use the slick tyres whereas everyone else did. Because of the position we were in, we could afford to take the gamble, if it did work, we would’ve won overall however it just wasn’t the right strategy. The wet’s worked for the first few laps but the rain didn’t come so we had to pit again and change to slicks. Sometimes the gambles pay off, but today sadly it didn’t for us!
“We were happy with the pace I had throughout the second race but starting so low down, it was just tough to make a way through. We have got a lot that we as a team can build on ahead of Oulton Park in a few weeks. Although maybe not the results we would have ideally wanted, we were able to take away a handful of points from the weekend.
“I’d like to thank my sponsors UFI Filters and 20ten creative for their continuous support throughout my campaign.”
