After the racing on the streets of Monte Carlo, New Zealand racing driver Matt Halliday now heads to another city circuit for the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, as part of the Formula 1 weekend. At the European Grand Prix in Valencia/Spain on 27th June, the world’s fastest international brand trophy series tackles the fifth round of the season on the demanding circuit around the America’s Cup harbour.
With the Formula 1 circus recently racing in Canada, the Porsche Supercup has had an extended break for 5 weeks so drivers are keen to return to action on the high speed street circuit.
Although the 5.4 kilometre track is not as tight as Monaco, drivers will still have to use all their skills to pass at one of the few positions where overtaking is possible. Therefore, like Monaco, qualifying will still be of optimum importance in order to compete at the front end of the field and avoid having to battle through the middle order.
Halliday will be keen to learn as much of the circuit as possible during his free practice session on Friday as this will be his first event at the spectacular venue. He is also confident his Giltrap Racing Porsche 911 GT3 will be competitive as the MRS Team responsible for the preparation contested last year’s race with some success:
“It’s always a big ask in this class which is the fastest international brand Trophy Series in the world. We learned a lot at Monaco as we managed to pass four cars in the race after a tough qualifying session. I believe Valencia is a lot faster but overtaking will still be tricky so I intend to work hard with the team to find the best qualifying set up on a track I haven’t driven on before” Halliday said from his California base.
This weekend’s race is again a support event for the European Formula 1 Grand Prix and will see qualifying on Saturday night with the 12 lap race being held on Sunday night (NZ time). Full race coverage of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup can be seen on TV3 during their Sunday afternoon motorsport programme presented by Shaun Summerfield.
