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Will Jenkins Excels At Donington Park With Double Porsche Podium

Will Jenkins enjoyed his best weekend of the 2024 Porsche Sprint Challenge GB season so far at Donington Park this past weekend (24-25 August), with some brilliant charges forward in the races securing him a pair of podium finishes.


Aiming to bounce back strongly from a frustrating outing at Croft last time out, Jenkins headed to Donington Park hoping to replicate the pace that saw him secure a fantastic pole position and maiden Porsche victory in the corresponding event last year.


The Staffordshire racer got the race week off to a fantastic start as he lapped second fastest overall during official testing on Tuesday, before going quickest of all during free practice on Thursday in his Team Parker Racing prepared Porsche Cayman.


Jenkins, who is part of the exciting Young Driver Programme from reigning British Touring Car Championship champions Alliance Racing and Wera Tools, would face a new challenge come qualifying on Saturday though as a change of conditions saw rain fall over the Leicestershire circuit.


The 19-year-old talent adapted well to the conditions to secure fifth on the grid for race one that afternoon, which he quickly turned into third place with a brilliant, brave move around the outside heading down the Craner Curves on the opening lap.


Jenkins showed fantastic pace from there and heaped pressure on Tom Bradshaw ahead as the race developed, however cautious not to make too many risks on a tricky, damp circuit he elected to tuck in behind his rival and secure a good points haul in third at the chequered flag.


Starting from back in seventh for race two on Sunday morning, Jenkins was ready to fight forward in his Cayman. Holding position through the opening couple of laps, he then pounced on a group of battling cars ahead and moved up to fifth place with a great overtaking move.


Further progress came a few laps later as a great run out of Coppice corner moved him up to fourth at the expense of Jacob Tofts. His next target was Max Coates in the final podium place and he pushed hard in the closing laps, but just missed out on silverware on that occasion.

The Stone-based driver lined up fourth for the final race of the weekend and made a fantastic start in front of the live ITV4 television cameras, pulling off a bold manoeuvre around the outside into the first corner to slot into third place.


Jenkins didn’t stop there though, with a brilliant run through the Old Hairpin allowed him to draft past Bradshaw for second. While he didn’t quite have the pace to match the leader as the race developed, he held a comfortable gap to the cars behind to secure a superb seventh podium finish of the year.


Jenkins, who is racing with the continued support of personal partners alongside Hopkins Motorsport Ltd, Asset Alliance Group, Reefer Trailer Centre, Culina Group, Thermo King Northern, Motorsport UK Academy and new partner SAF-Holland, remains fourth in the standings with six races left this season.


Will Jenkins: “Overall, it’s been comfortably our strongest and most consistent weekend of the season so far. The car was rapid straight out of the blocks in testing and I’m delighted I could take advantage of that pace and bring home a great haul of points from the three races.


“After going fastest in the dry on Thursday, it was frustrating to see the change of conditions for qualifying. The result was disappointing, but I quickly put that behind me and knew we had the speed in the car to make progress in the races and that’s what we did.


“It was good fun out there pulling off some moves and fighting forward to a couple of podium finishes, particularly coming home second in the live televised race. That was a nice way to end a really positive weekend, and fill us all with confidence going into the final two rounds of the season.”


The penultimate round of the 2024 Porsche Sprint Challenge GB season is coming up next month, with three races on the Silverstone National circuit over the weekend of 21-22 September.

Images from Porsche GB.

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