Building Materials supplier Nicholls & Clarke's sponsorship of pro race driver Mark Cole in the 2015 Porsche Carrera Cup GB saw the team at Oulton Park for rounds 5 and 6 of the Championship on 6 & 7 June.

Mark was denied a podium finish. Misfortune cost him the chance of two strong results in the striking cyan blue livery of the N&C Porsche 911.

After an eight-year break from racing, Mark has returned to the sport this season in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, Britain’s fastest single-marque race series for 460bhp racing Porsches. With a prime position on the supporting programme for the British Touring Car Championship, the Carrera Cup GB enjoys outstanding live TV coverage and huge race-day audiences.

Mark’s programme is backed by the Nicholls & Clarke Group as part of the company’s celebration of 140 years in business. Mark is racing in the championship’s Pro-Am1 category with the standard-setting Parr Motorsport team. The race weekend at Oulton Park in Cheshire was the third of eight events this season and drew a crowd of 30,000 to the spectacular parkland track.

Mark (49) from Highclere in Berkshire went to Oulton Park seeking to build on the opening two race weekends and convert excellent pace into podium finishes in the hotly-contested Pro-Am1 category.

Unfortunately, contact with other cars had a big impact on Mark’s weekend and left him with a best result of fourth in the opening race – just half a second away from a podium finish.

“On the third lap of qualifying I got hit by a slower car and that damaged the bodywork at the front of the car,” says Mark. “That cost me places on the grid at a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult, so fourth in the opening race was the best I could do. But we had good pace in the race.”

Mark went into the second race hopeful of exploiting that speed, but on only the second lap he took a heavy knock from a rival car at the tight Island Hairpin.

Although he knew something was badly amiss with his car, he battled on and finished the race. Only later did he discover that the contact had broken the rear hub, cracked the brake disc and bent the lower wishbone. That damage made it difficult for hime even to keep the car on the track, but he raced on and salvaged fifth in class.

“It was very frustrating not to be able to show our true pace,” said Mark at the end of the weekend. “But I’ve been racing long enough to know that you get weekends like this one. We’ll now re-group and come back even stronger for the next race weekend!”

The Porsche Carrera Cup GB season continues with rounds seven and eight at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire over the weekend of 27 & 28 June.