Rupert Lewin dominated the Bill Taylor Memorial race at Silverstone on Saturday (8th November). Lewin's mighty Porsche 996 GT2-R won the annual Porsche Club GB race, despite running perilously low on fuel towards the end of the race.
Lewin, tackling the 60-minute race solo, blasted into an immediate lead ahead of Phil Hindley (911 GT3 Cup) and the similar car of Jason Young. Hindley was able to stay with the quicker turbocharged car, and Lewin’s efforts to stay ahead ultimately affected his fuel consumption as he worked hard to pull clear of Hindley. Behind the top two, Young held third from Henry Firman, but he succumbed to the challenge of Maurizio Fabris, both in 911 GT3 Cup cars, whilst Paul Hogan’s 996 held sixth place.
Racing newcomer Fabris was in fine form, soon catching Young for third but his Team Parker Racing car shed a wheel at Becketts on lap 13 causing retirement. That took the pressure of Young who attacked Hindley once more for second, Hindley having lost time to Lewin after he was delayed by a yellow flag and backmarkers at Copse corner. Hindley’s pitstop to hand the car to Tom Shrimpton was compromised by the differing heights of the drivers and they lost second place to Chris Heeley who had taken over the Red Line Racing car from Young.
Lewin maintained his lead after the pit stops, over 40 seconds clear of Heeley, with Shrimpton third. Drama came in the final third of the race, though, when Lewin started to relax his pace with fuel worries and Heeley started to catch, two seconds a lap being found even though this was Heeley's first real experience of a 911 GT3 Cup car. A wild moment at Becketts delayed Heeley’s fight but just when he seemed to be sure to catch Lewin, Heeley lost mid-range power and was easy prey to a flying Shrimpton, Heeley coasting to the end. Shrimpton then started to close on Lewin, but was unable to narrow the gap sufficiently before the chequered flag.
"I’m delighted," said winner Lewin. "We never planned to stop for fuel as that would have cost us 90 seconds, but we hoped the other teams would speculate on us refuelling and plan their strategies accordingly. We were very low on fuel at the end, but we got away with it. The whole team has worked tremendously hard all year and this is a wonderful win."
Hindley/Shrimpton came home second, ahead of Heeley/Young, whilst Firman and Chris Eggington took fourth in the Team GVR 911 GT3 Cup car.
A race long duel between Paul and Graham Howells (993) and the similar Carrera of Mike and Steve Burtt was resolved in favour of the Burtts, and with their sixth place overall they also won the Bill Taylor Trophy by being victorious on handicap.
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4 3"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"%3E%3C/svg%3E)