at CroftDanny Watts drove a superbly judged race to win round nine of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Croft Saturday, 15 July. Watts got away at the start and was never challenged as title rivals Damien Faulkner and Tim Harvey battled for second and Phil Quaife won the pro-am category.“I wanted to get it off the line and into the first corner ahead,” said Watts. “Then I knew I had the pace to stay ahead.” Sure enough, Watts (Team Irwin with Red Line) led the field into Clervaux corner and was able to break away on the first lap as Harvey (Motorbase Performance) and Faulkner (Team Parker with SAS) chased in second and third.It was soon clear that Harvey’s hands were full of Faulkner and for 13 laps Harvey withstood tremendous pressure as Faulkner kept his championship rival under intense pressure. But it was not until they braked for Tower on the 13th lap that Faulkner made the decisive move and dived down the inside. “I was very pleased with the move into Tower and Tim gave me the room,” said Faulkner.However, with Watts clear by eight seconds, Faulkner knew that second was the best he could achieve. “It’s the championship we’re after and Tim’s the only one we’re really concerned with.” Faulkner’s team mate Jason Templeman ran fourth in the early laps, but overshot going into the Complex and just nudged the tyre barrier. He resumed, but was down in eleventh place at the flag.Making it two Motorbase Performance cars in the top four, Michael Caine chased Harvey and Faulkner throughout and almost got close enough to make it a three-way battle. But he was still a couple of seconds adrift of Harvey at the flag as Richard Williams (IN2RACING) also closed in on the leading pack over the final stages of the race.Mark Cole (Tech 9 Motorsport), having started eighth after spinning into the gravel in qualifying, moved up to sixth at the flag, moving ahead of Phil Quaife (Motorbase Performance) on lap 16. Quaife, however, was more concerned with scoring maximum pro-am points and didn’t defend too hard when Cole closed in. “It was very hot out there and I had to work hard,” said Quaife after extending his pro-am points’ lead. For the first half of the race, Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing) ran second in pro-am, and was coming under increasing pressure from Sam Edwards (Team Parker Racing). Unfortunately, Rice’s race ended on lap 12 when he spun into the gravel at Clervaux. “I just lost it on my own,” admitted Rice, as Edwards went through to take a clear second in pro-am. “The car was good and I’m definitely aiming to get Phil tomorrow,” promised Edwards of the second race of the weekend. Andy Purdie (Paragon) took third in the pro-am category from David Ashburn (Trackspeed).Provisional results – 20 laps:1 Danny Watts (Team Irwin with Red Line)          28m08.179s2 Damien Faulkner (Team Parker with SAS)          28m17.832s3 Tim Harvey (Motorbase Performance)              28m20.452s4 Michael Caine (Motorbase Performance)           28m22.180s5 Richard Williams (IN2RACING)                    28m24.084s6 Mark Cole (Tech 9 Motorsport)                   28m36.544s7 Phil Quaife (Motorbase Performance)             28m39.927s8 Sam Edwards (Team Parker Racing)                28m44.756s9 Andy Purdie (Paragon)                           28m53.168s10 David Ashburn (Trackspeed)                     29m08.489s