SPA, Belgium — Harry King (Allied-Racing) has hit the ground running in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland.
The United Kingdom racer won the season-opening race on the famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps ahead of the two Dutchmen, Larry ten Voorde and Loek Hartog (both GP Elite).
This was King’s debut in Porsche’s German one-make cup – which he promptly won.
“It feels great to start the season with such a sense of achievement. We used the free practice to set the car up for this track. It makes me all the more pleased that we were rewarded as a team,” said King.
The 32-strong field lined up on the grid in their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars in sunshine and temperatures of 19 degrees Celsius. Starting from pole position, King got off the line cleanly in his 375 kW (510 PS) Cup car and won the sprint to the first corner.
In the first minutes, the 2022 champion of the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux eked out an advantage of almost two seconds, only to lose it during a safety car phase. For more than two laps, the field followed the Taycan Turbo S, which is decked out in a special livery this season to commemorate the anniversary of “75 Years of Porsche Sports Cars”.
At the restart, King fended off ten Voorde’s repeated attacks and crossed the finish line first after 13 laps.
Ten Voorde made up two positions during the race and finished in second place. His teammate Hartog completed the podium.
Shortly after the safety car phase, the 20-year-old advanced to third place and, in the final minutes, defended his position against his fellow countryman Morris Schuring (Fach Auto Tech).
Porsche-Junior Bastian Buus (Allied-Racing) wrapped up the first race of the season in fifth place.
Vincent Andronaco (Allied-Racing) concluded his first race in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland in sixth. This makes the 17-year-old from Hamburg the best driver from the Talent Pool – the one-make cup’s youth development squad.
This season’s first trophy in the ProAm class was claimed by Georgi Donchev (ProfilDoors by Huber Racing). The Bulgarian won his category on the 7.004-kilometre race track in the Ardennes ahead of the two Germans Sören Spreng (GP Elite) and Kai Pfister (HRT Performance).