MICHAEL Keohane’s highly impressive qualifying sessions for rounds nine and ten of the Carwow Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain at Donington Park on Saturday didn’t generate the desired or indeed the expected results in Sunday’s races where his fine race performances at the Leicestershire circuit went unrewarded.

In the round nine qualifier, the Ballygurteen driver secured P4 (overall and P1 Masters) in his Keohane Readymix liveried Porsche – one of the highest qualifying positions ever for a Masters category driver. In the round ten qualifier, he took P9 (P2 Masters). 

In Sunday morning’s first race and lining up on the second row of the grid – for the first time since his British Formula 3 days – Keohane looked very much at home as he maintained fourth at a furious pace within the top six. The fact that his Century Motorsport team-mate Henry Dawes, a vastly experienced driver at the circuit, lined up on the third row, certainly didn’t faze Keohane as Max Coates (Graves Motorsport) moved into fifth after a few laps.

After eight laps of intense racing, Keohane was 0.893s ahead of Coates and for over two-thirds of the 19-lap race kept him at bay. That was until Lap 14 as Keohane turned into the Melbourne hairpin, Coates, having moved onto the grass, spun and made contact with Keohane’s car, resulting in rear-end damage. 

Coates retired at the start of the next lap as Keohane, who returned to the pits for temporary repairs, eventually finished the race and took a third-place podium finish in the Master’s category behind Dawes and another team-mate, Carl Cavers.  

However, he was later disqualified as the clerk of course deemed he was responsible for the incident. Keohane’s appeal was unsuccessful.

The second race in the afternoon was even more frustrating when on the fourth lap, the Porsche driven by Jacob Tofts (Graves Motorsport) made contact that ended with Keohane’s car having a high-impact collision with the tyre barriers.  

‘Oliver Jackson and Steven Jelley were battling side by side (in front of Keohane) so the pace slowed up a bit at the hairpin,’ Keohane explained.

‘Tofts got up behind me and seemed to hit the back of my car that fired me into the barrier. I don’t really know what happened other than it was a big impact with the barrier.’

He added: ‘I put a lot of preparation into this weekend, working towards getting on the pace and getting at the front, which was the goal. To be there this morning and within a few laps of bringing it home to a great result and then for this to happen, it’s still very hard to take. I will just have to dust myself down again and that’s it.’

Next weekend’s rounds (11and 12) of the championship are in Croft.