STUTTGART, Germany — Victory at his home race was a matter of honor for defending champion Larry ten Voorde.
Ten Voorde won the fifth race of the Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland season in Zandvoort. Driving for Proton Huber Competition, the Dutchman closed the gap to the championship leader Harry King to just two points.
The U.K. racer took the flag in second place after 16 laps at the wheel of Allied-Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. The remaining podium step was claimed by Germany’s Theo Oeverhaus from the Bonk Motorsport squad.
Tackling the race from pole position, ten Voorde lost his lead in the sprint to the first corner to his fellow countryman Robert de Haan.
“Robert simply got off the line better,“ ten Voorde later admitted. De Haan, who competes for the team led by Porsche’s brand ambassador Timo Bernhard, eked out an advantage of over a second at the front of the field. A puncture, however, brought an early end to the 17-year-old’s race after nine laps. He was adamant, “I could’ve won.”
Shortly after, two off-track excursions resulted in full course yellows, which saw the entire field lapping the Formula 1 circuit in the dunes at the North Sea coast at 80 km/h. Once the race returned to green, only two laps remained. While ten Voorde continued at the front on his way to clinching his fifth Carrera Cup victory in Zandvoort, a duel for second place unfolded between Oeverhaus and King.
“I missed a braking point right after the restart,” said Oeverhaus, explaining why he let King pass. “But this is the first time I’ve achieved a podium result in the overall standings, and I’m very pleased about that,” stated the German driver.
“The race was a rollercoaster for me,” grinned King. Starting from sixth, the Englishman then swept past one rival after the other. A minor nudge with a competitor resulted in his Porsche briefly driving on only its rear wheels along the start-finish straight.
“Luckily, my car didn’t suffer any significant damage. My race pace was great today, that makes me confident for tomorrow,” said King, looking ahead to the second race of the weekend on Sunday. At this stage, only two points separate him from defending champion ten Voorde in the overall standings.
Fourth place originally went to Dutchman Flynt Schuring. But the 17-year-old, who competes for Proton Huber Competition’s second team, was handed a time penalty of one second after the finish. Thus, Kas Haverkort advanced one position to fourth and took the victory in the rookie classification. Alexander Tauscher rounded off Proton Huber Competition’s commendable result with sixth place.
Senna van Soelen took third place – ensuring that the rookie podium remained entirely in Dutch hands. Sören Spreng from Germany won the ProAm classification ahead of Ahmad Alshehab from Kuwait and his German teammate Michael Essmann.
