A mixed weekend for Chesterfield's Seb Perez as racing returns at Donington

He had to retire the historic 1965 Porsche 911 in the Masters Historic Racing Club “Gentleman Drivers” endurance race after a great start in the race.

Although disappointed a still upbeat Perez said: “It was a shame really, the car was going so well. The oil leak prevented us from continuing. It performed well all weekend and the limited mechanics and support from Dansport did a fantastic job but we will be back in it soon and stronger.”

With limited testing in the superbly presented Porsche before last weekend, Perez and his team mate George Gamble knew it would be tough going and if anything the weekend was to be used as a shakedown of the new car and how it was going to perform for the rest of a busy season ahead of them in the UK and in Europe.

Qualifying session saw both drivers using their ex Porsche Carrera Cup GB expertise of two years to top the timing sheets.

They took many fastest laps and showed long term racers in the series that the new boys on the block were the ones to look out for.

Perez was topping speeds of over 80mph in the Dansport prepared car. They were second fastest Porsche on the tarmac of Donington Park’s 1.97 mile circuit with a time of 1.27.994s.

The Good Friday race turned sour for Perez after, having a great start, he made up two places in the first two laps and the car was running well, B y lap 6 the car was flying. He was in 29th place making up a further three more places.

But the race saw some neutralised racing for some safety car periods but by lap 22 that car started to show signs of problems with some smoke coming from the exhaust and engine.

Perez took the Porsche into the pits to find his race was over after the car had developed an oil leak from a seal that had blown.

Perez now hops to move onto the European 2 Litre Cup, a one make series just for pre-66 Porsche 911 race cars and also other UK historic events such as the Donington Historic Festival at the beginning of May,