Fastest lap as the weekend’s highlight
Colin Bönighausen brought home some points from Zandvoort, but also even more experience.
As in 2024, Colin Bönighausen once again competed in two different racing series in the Netherlands. His main focus was on the Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland with Proton Huber Competition, while Colin also made a guest appearance in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux with Bas Koeten Racing.
Zandvoort, in walking distance to the North Sea coast, showed its most unfriendly side last weekend. As if the already extremely demanding track in the sand dunes was not challenging enough, there were also changeable conditions and a stiff breeze. Something like that doesn’t normally upset a racing driver like Colin Bönighausen so quickly.
The weekend began to the 20-year-old’s liking with a best time in the Benelux Cup practice session, still in the dry. Colin then got off to an equally good start in the wet qualifying session, but the team’s failure to prepare a second set of tyres was a costly mistake that relegated him to grid positions 10 and 11. The team apologised for this unusual error. After all, to err is human. But it was extremely disappointing because we obviously wanted to fight for the podium.” Despite this, Colin had high hopes for both races, but his plans were abruptly thwarted: “Although the car was almost brand new, there was a problem with the potentiometer.” Put simply, the throttle response was reduced at the start of acceleration, meaning there was a lack of speed on the straights. “Unfortunately, this only became apparent during the race, as it wasn’t a problem in wet conditions because you don’t accelerate at full throttle anyway …” Despite all the difficulties, we still achieved two 10th places in the races.
Colin finished 13th in the first qualifying session for the German Cup. This put him in a good midfield position, ahead of some of his faster teammates. However, Colin wanted more: “With more than 30 cars, there’s always the risk of being slowed down on your fastest lap by a teammate making a mistake – unfortunately, that happened to me.” In the second qualifying session, however, it was Colin who caused an interruption. “I drove straight on and hit the tyre barrier slightly. The bad thing was that reverse gear didn’t engage …”
Colin then improved by one place to 12th in the first race. However, his far more experienced teammate Marvin Klein finished just one place ahead of him, demonstrating the high calibre of the PCCD. “You can’t afford to make any mistakes. On the other hand, you also need a bit of luck in traffic during qualifying or in the scramble at the start.” Nevertheless, Colin was satisfied with the improved handling of his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup: “Proton Competition has done a great job. The car now handles the way I want it to.”
From 30th on the grid, Colin had nothing to lose in the second race on Sunday afternoon. In drying conditions, the team gambled with slick tyres. “It was still extremely wet at the start and with the safety car phases, I could hardly get the tyres up to temperature. I had to be extremely careful.” Just how slippery it was became apparent after numerous spins by his colleagues, who clearly had difficulties staying on the track even with wet tyres. In the end, Colin fought his way up to 20th place: “Too bad, it was just starting to dry out as the race came to an end – I would have needed two or three more laps, then our strategy would have paid off.” After all, Colin was able to set the fastest race lap for the first time in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany. This proves that he is on the right track – now he just needs to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, perhaps at the next PCCD race from 4 to 6 July at the Norisring in Nuremberg.
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Credits: PCCB bzw. Agentur Kräling/PCCD
