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Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain, Race report
2016/2017 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Scholarship finalists announced

Porsche Carrera Cup GB has revealed the four finalists who will go head-to-head for the 2016/2017 scholarship programme at an assessment day at Silverstone on 28 October. The four supremely talented and ambitious young drivers were selected from a record-breaking pool of applicants and fended off competition from some of the finest racing talent in the UK to get to the final evaluation stage.

Sam Brabham (Banbury), Ashley Crossey (Bristol), Charlie Eastwood (Belfast) and Hannah Pym (Staines-upon-Thames) are the four lucky drivers who will be assessed via on and off track criteria for the superb opportunity to compete in the UK’s fastest one-make series and be aligned with the most successful sportscar marque worldwide.

Inducted into the MSA Academy and selected as a BRDC Rising Star, 21-year-old Sam Brabham rose to prominence with an outstanding debut single-seater season in the 2013 Formula Ford Championship, achieving six podium finishes. He then built on that success by converting his first career pole positions into victories in the same formula at Thruxton in 2014 as well as maintaining an impressive international racing campaign in the MRF Championship.

Currently racing in F3 Cup, 22-year-old Ashley Crossey boasts an impressive record in Formula Ford and Formula Renault BARC as well as the superb achievement of becoming Formula Ford Carnival Champion in 2013. In particular the first half of his 2014 Formula Ford campaign demonstrated his immense pace and pure driving ability.

Charlie Eastwood proved his immense potential back in 2012 by winning the Rotax World Championship. He added the European karting title to his trophy cabinet the following year before moving to BRDC Formula 4 in 2014. Some highly promising results this year in Formula Renault NEC and Eurocup are further proof of the 20-year-old’s outstanding ability.

With an enviable record in British Cadet and CIK FIA U18 World Championship karting, 19-year-old Hannah Pym enjoyed great success in the DKM German Championship in both 2013 and 2014. An extensive testing schedule this season in a 460 hp ‘Type 991’ 911 GT3 Cup Car has shown her natural speed and ability.

The Carrera Cup GB Scholarship winner will receive £80,000 per year towards their 2016 and 2017 Porsche Carrera Cup GB budgets, bespoke training plans with the Porsche Human Performance Centre at Silverstone, world-class media training and priceless exposure to the international Porsche Motorsport family.

Porsche UK Motorsport Manager James MacNaughton commented: “We were delighted with the strength of applications for the 2016/2017 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Scholarship Programme and are looking forward to putting the four finalists through their paces at the assessment day at Silverstone later this month. They are four immensely talented young drivers and it is fantastic that they are all so passionate about furthering their career with Porsche.”

Following the assessment day on 28 October, the 2016/2017 Carrera Cup GB Scholar will be announced at the end-of-season awards on 7 November.

Be sure not to miss a thing by following the Porsche CarreraCup GB Championship at @CarreraCupGB on Twitter, @carreracupgb on Instagram and liking the new Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CarreraCupGB.

Sam Brabham Racing Highlights
2014 - British Formula Ford Championship - 11th overall (only competed in four rounds)
2013/2014 - MRF Championship - 9th overall
2013 - British Formula Ford Championship - 4th overall, 2nd rookie

Ashley Crossey Racing Highlights
2015 - F3 Cup
2014 - Formula Ford -3rd overall
2013 - Formula Ford/Formula Renault BARC - 5th overall + Formula Ford Carnival champion

Charlie Eastwood Racing Highlights
2015 - Renault Eurocup and NEC Championships/ Toyota Racing Series New Zealand - 6th
2014 - BRDC Formula 4 - 10th
2013 - Rotax European Championship - 1st
2012 - Rotax World Championship - 1st

Hannah Pym Racing Highlights
2014 - DKM German Championship and CIK FIA European Championship
2013 - DKM German Championships
2011/2012 - CIK FIA U18 World Championships
2009 - British Cadet Championships - 2nd

Ends

For more information, please contact the Porsche press office team:

Kate Gregory - Press Office Assistant
Email: kate.gregory@porsche.co.uk
Mobile: 0118 916 5050

Jonathan Campkin - Carrera Cup GB Press Officer
Email: Jonathan.campkin@porsche.co.uk
Mobile: 07500 578805

Rob Punshon - Press Officer
Email: rob.punshon@porsche.co.uk
Tel: 0118 925 2733
Mobile: 07881 008950

Nick Perry - Product Affairs Manager
E-mail: Nick.perry@porsche.co.uk
Tel 0118 925 2721
Mobile 07775 860 291

Angus Fitton - Head of PR
Email angus.fitton@porsche.co.uk
Tel 0118 925 2720

Press website: porsche-press.co.uk and newspress.co.uk
Press email: press@porsche.co.uk

Press Twitter: @PorscheGB_PR
Porsche News: newsroom.porsche.com

Editors’ Note:

Porsche can claim more than 30,000 race victories in almost every motor sports series worldwide, and while many of these successes have been achieved with immensely powerful specialist race cars like the evocative 917 and 956, the iconic 911 sports coupe is the bedrock on which the peerless racing reputation of the Stuttgart marque has been built.

The 911 demonstrates perfectly the Porsche philosophy of not only building sports cars in order to win races, but also to gain development know-how that can be incorporated into the evolution of its road cars. Successive generations of the rear-engined 911 have been honed on the race circuit since its debut in 1963, with customers benefitting from continuous improvements in key dynamic areas such as engine performance, braking and aerodynamics.

Porsche is the world's largest manufacturer of racing cars; the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car competes in the Mobil1 Supercup, the world’s fastest international one-make Championship, which supports Formula One Grands Prix. The 911 GT3 Cup also entertains spectators around the world racing in the many domestic Carrera Cup Championships in Germany, Asia, France, Italy, Japan, Scandinavia and Great Britain. The all-new GT3 R is the first step for drivers moving up to GT racing, while the 911 RSR is the standard-bearer for the Porsche Works teams in international blue riband events like Daytona and the Le Mans 24 Hours.

With a record number of overall victories, Porsche is the most successful manufacturer in Le Mans history. In 2014, Porsche returned to Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with the factory-run 919 Hybrid sports prototype race car in the top LMP1 category, and scored its first outright victory in its debut WEC season in the final race in Brazil.

This June, Porsche scored its 17th and latest success in Le Mans when Britain’s Nick Tandy, New Zealand driver Earl Bamber and German F1 star Nico Hulkenberg took the chequered flag in their 919 Hybrid LMP1 after 24 hours of flat out racing. Chasing this trio across the line was the second 919 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley (New Zealand), Mark Webber (Australia) and Timo Bernhard (Germany) to deliver a 1-2 result for the Stuttgart team.