EDGE pilot Josh Rowledge made a positive start to his 2023 senior driving career taking part in the opening rounds of the new Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe with Richardson Racing.
The Corby-based team made the trip to the Circuit Ricardo Tormo near Valencia for the first of three meetings that will make up the new series fielding a youthful line-up of Robert De Haan and Josh Rowledge – both of whom were racing a Type 992 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car for the first time.
Pre-event testing on the Friday prior to the event saw both drivers impress, with Rob topping the times in two of the four sessions and Josh joining him at the front in session three as the team secured a one-two on the timesheets.
That pace was carried into free practice on Saturday morning as Josh slotted into a solid seventh in the #10, less than eight-tenths of a second behind his team mate. With two separate qualifying sessions used to determine the grid for the two races, Josh was able to grab a second row start for the opening race having gone fourth fastest, and would then line up in eighth spot for race two – albeit with a lap time that was only two-tenths of a second off repeating his earlier result.
Race 1 saw A mature drive from Josh with him embroiled in a three-way dice with Sebastian Freymuth and Flynt Schuring throughout before he crossed the line in fourth place, although an unfortunate five-second penalty for exceeding track limits would lead to him being classified in fifth. A fantastic debut for the youngster considering it his first time in a senior race car.
In Race 2 Josh would lose two spots on the opening lap of the race after contact in the pack, but would show solid pace throughout the 18 laps to retain his place through to the finish – eventually being classified in seventh place as a result of penalties elsewhere.
Josh Rowledge, #10 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, said:
”I’m really pleased with how my debut weekend went in the Porsche as it is a big step up from the Ginetta I have been racing. To achieve a top five in both qualifying and the opening race showed the potential we have with more time in the car.
”It was a shame that we picked up some damage on lap one of the second race as it limited my progress, but overall I’m really happy with how the weekend went and I feel it’s given me a platform to build on going forwards.”
