It’s been a busy and successful couple of weekend for our favourite girl racer Sarah Bennett-Baggs in her Adrian Flux sponsored Porsches.
First she partnered experienced rally driver Adrian Kermode to take second overall in the two-day Tour Britannia 2013, in a Flux-sponsored, Rothmans liveried 911 SC, before taking a class win in the famous Pink Panther Porsche in her debut in the HSCC 70s Roadsports race at Silverstone.
Sarah and Kermode, paired for the first time, won 12 of the Tour Britannia’s 40 stages, finishing second in 21 others.
Sarah and Adrian with the Porsche (pic: Jeff Bloxham)
The pair finished just two-and-a-half minutes behind double Tour winner Phil Hindley in his Porsche 911 SC, and Sarah said: “I couldn’t be happier with the result. We knew Phil would be pretty impossible to beat. Adrian and I worked well together out the box, he is very cool, calm and a superb driver. His performance meant I had to up the game on the navigating side and the pressure was on to get round without getting lost! Our team did an amazing job to ensure we had the right tyres and fuel when we needed it, which was often with the mini rally tank. Adrian is already talking about other possible events and making the rally car go faster in races so watch this space we may be back!”
Then at the weekend Sarah picked up a class win in her Adrian Flux sponsored Porsche 911 SC in her debut in the HSCC 70s Roadsports championship on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.
Sarah in the Pink Panther at Silverstone.
In Saturday morning’s qualifying the 70s Roadsports joined another grid to qualify among 60 classic cars. Qualifying was red flagged after an incident involving the coming together of two Lotus Elans, but Sarah had secured enough laps to qualify 3rd in her class and 4th on the grid overall. Some controversy post qualifying over the flat wing on Sarah’s Porsche SC being legal caused her to be moved to the invitation class.
The race kicked off in dry conditions, and on the rolling start the two front-runners, father and son duo Julian and Charles Barter, took off from Luffield leaving the rest of the grid playing catch-up. Sarah chased the leader pack, fighting off challenges from the Porsche 968, Lotus Elan, and the Ford Capri of Nic Strong. At the chequered flag the Pink Panther crossed the line 3/100ths of a second ahead of fellow class contender Strong to finish 1st in class, and 5th overall in the race.
Richard Plant won the race outright in his Morgan Plus 8.
“That was a hard-fought class win on Saturday – Nic certainly made me work for it, but the circuit suits the car and I wasn’t going to let that Capri past at any cost! It is very easy to over-drive and lose it with a 911, so I had to stay calm under the increasing pressure of Nic breathing down my neck. I was very pleased to see the chequered flag. The HSCC have been very friendly and welcoming today, and I am sure we will be back.”
Sarah will be back out in the Pink Panther in the 70s Roadsports at the Oulton Park Gold Cup.