Total Control Racing continued its supreme dominance of the Ginetta GT5 Challenge category during the championship’s annual visit to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium over the weekend, with Callum Pointon and James Kellett sealing all three race wins for the Wednesbury squad.
Pointon secured his maiden series victory in round 10 on Friday, 10th July, and went on to add a second success in round 11 on Saturday, 11th July – each time heading home his championship leading team-mate. Kellett then hit back in round 12 on Saturday afternoon to seal his eighth win of 2015 and further boost his already substantial points lead.
Kellett, who now has 11 podiums to his credit this year, returns to the UK with an enhanced 53 point lead but his closest challenger in the title race is now fellow TCR driver Pointon who has moved into second in the standings after increasing his podium tally to nine for the season.
Ian Robinson, meanwhile, produced three very strong race performances for the team and despite an unfortunate non-finish in race one he bounced back to take ninth in round 11 and a season-best equalling top six in round 12 to hold on to 10th position in the championship.
“What a perfect weekend, absolutely fantastic – you can’t ask for much more than three wins from three and three one-two finishes”, said elated TCR team principal Lee Brookes, “We’re absolutely delighted for Callum to get his first win and then double-up in race two and James did a mega job as he always does.
“To be one-two in the championship is exactly where we want to be and with Ian racing strongly again, it really has been a superb weekend for the whole team. There’s still a long way to go in the championship, but we’re very happy.”
Pointon and Kellett lead the way for TCR at Spa Pointon starred in the qualifying session on Friday, 10th July, to seal a superb pole position after edging out championship-leading team-mate Kellett and at the beginning of the first race he made his grid-topping start count.
Never realistically challenged throughout the eight laps, Pointon was able to control the race from the front and build a handsome cushion. His lead going into the final lap was an outstanding 7.3 seconds and with no mistakes over the final 4.3 miles of racing, Pointon bagged his maiden victory in style. He also secured fastest lap with a time of 2m50.200 seconds to claim a perfect points haul.
Kellett slipped behind arch-rival Ollie Chadwick on the opening lap and the pair became embroiled in a very close see-saw battle which, in part, helped Pointon to run untroubled to the finish. After passing Chadwick for second at the chicane on lap four, the pair did switch positions again but the TCR racer managed to see off his challenger to take second place.
Everything was set for all three TCR cars to finish in the top six with Robinson on course to finish in sixth position with a couple of laps to go. Having held the place from the start, racing well to see off some close attention from Jack Minshaw at mid-distance, an unfortunate engine blow-up on lap seven resulted in a bitterly disappointing non-finish.
In round 11 on Saturday morning, Pointon again made the most of pole position to lead but Kellett was determined to make a return to the top step of the podium and he moved ahead on lap one before Pointon hit back on the second tour.
With mere fractions of a second separating the top three, Pointon ahead of Kellett and Chadwick, as the battle over second position intensified on lap five Pointon was able to scamper into the distance and he went on to claim his second consecutive victory by over six seconds.
Kellett and Chadwick fought tooth and nail, swapping places several times, but it was TCR’s points leader who again came out on top after seeing off Chadwick on the penultimate tour and he also secured the fastest lap of the contest with a best time of 2m49.556 seconds.
Robinson concluded lap one in 13th position and by the end of lap two he was up into 11th place and carving his way through the order well. Gaining two more places on the third tour, he then held ninth position all the way to the chequered flag on lap eight with no further progress possible.
Round 12 provided Kellett with his opportunity to return to winning ways, but he had to fight very hard indeed with Pointon never more than a few tenths of a second behind for the majority of the race. Over the final couple of tours, Kellett was able to pull further clear to win on lap seven by 2.7 seconds while Pointon finished over 10 seconds clear of third position and took fastest lap.
Robinson claimed his third top six finish of the season with a great drive, initially running in seventh place before moving into sixth on the penultimate lap. Although the gap to the top five was too much to bridge, Robinson again underlined his promise at the wheel of his Ginetta G40.
Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit in Kent will welcome the Ginetta GT5 Challenge back to UK shores three weeks from now, on 1st/2nd August, for rounds 13, 14 and 15 of the season.Provisional 2015 Ginetta GT5 Challenge Standings (after Rd12): 1st James Kellett, 378pts; 2nd Callum Pointon, 325pts; 10th Ian Robinson, 119pts
