A SENSATIONAL SECOND WIN OF ROOKIE SEASON AT SNETTERTON
Middleton and Tregurtha remain on top of British GT4 points table
Star performance once again from highly rated teenage rookies
Tregurtha earns Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend accolade
British GT4 Championship leaders Stuart Middleton and Will Tregurtha stormed to a remarkable second win of the 2017 season during round four at Snetterton 300 Circuit on Sunday, 28th May, which keeps the ultra-impressive duo on top of the points standings.
Marking back-to-back victories for the HHC Motorsport pairing in their maiden season of endurance racing, having taken their debut success at Rockingham last time out, the win in round four more than confirmed Middleton and Tregurtha’s genuine championship credentials.
While an unfortunate collision in the second of the Snetterton weekend’s one-hour contests led to a frustrating non-finish, the 17-year-old Ginetta G55 GT4 drivers head to the midway point of the season, round five at Silverstone a fortnight from now, 9.5 points clear at the top of the standings.
As has been the case since the beginning of their maiden British GT season, Tregurtha and Middleton shone in qualifying with very evenly matched performances in their respective runs. Tregurtha took the round four session and with a best time of 1m58.040 seconds (90.54mph) he secured second on the grid for race one, missing pole position by the tiny margin of 0.009 seconds.
Middleton climbed into the HHC Ginetta for the round five session and he too secured a front row start for the second of the weekend’s two races, a time of 1m57.492 seconds (90.96mph) within 0.2 seconds of pole position.
At the beginning of Sunday’s opening encounter, Milton Keynes racer Tregurtha made a good launch from the rolling start and challenged for the lead around the outside into Riches before sealing the pass and going on to pull three seconds clear as the race reached one quarter distance.
Building the lead even further, the Enlighten and iPro Sport-backed driver was almost five seconds to the good prior to the mid-race driver change pit-stop and after handing over the No.55 car to Middleton, the Ashington-based driver emerged onto the track in second place.
Notably, the HHC entry had to remain in the pits 10 seconds longer than rival crews by way of a ‘success’ penalty for winning at Rockingham. Running over two seconds adrift of the leading No.51 Ginetta, Middleton ate into the gap and within little more than a lap he was just 0.4 seconds adrift.
Swarming all over the back of race leader David Pittard, Middleton made the breakthrough with around five minutes to run thanks to a terrific pass into the Bomb Hole and he went on to pull out an advantage of more than two seconds before taking the chequered flag 1.8 seconds clear.
Middleton took the opening stint for round five and the North East Caravans supported driver was initially edged back to third place. Consolidating the position throughout the opening 25 minutes, when the pit-stop window opened Middleton was one of the first to hand over to his team-mate.
Tregurtha held second when the order settled but, before long, racing fell under caution when the Safety Car was required. At the resumption, with just 15 minutes remaining, the HHC driver made a successful bid for the lead at Hamilton by passing David Pattison but with the move placing the Ginetta slightly off-line for the next double right-hander, he was edged back to second again.
Just a couple of laps later, though, Tregurtha’s involvement came to a frustrating end when contact with another Ginetta at the chicane resulted in heavy damage which, ultimately, led to him running off the circuit at Riches at the start of the following lap.
Better news came thanks to his best lap of the race, 1m58.650 seconds, which was a new GT4 lap record for Snetterton 300 Circuit and also ensured he took home the Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend Award.
Stuart Middleton:
“I’m so happy we’ve won again, I feel so confident with everything now – it’s all gelling and a result like this is mind-blowing to say the least. The whole team is absolutely fantastic and there’s no doubt we’re capable of these results on merit, everyone is absolutely buzzing. The move to get the lead is definitely on my top 10 list, I was thoroughly pleased to pull it off.”
Will Tregurtha:
“I’m so happy with the win, I can’t believe it really. I managed to build a gap of something like 4.9 seconds in my stint and that really helped as it meant we came out of the pits just behind [David] Pittard and [Alex] Reed. The car was really good throughout the stint, I can’t thank HHC enough. We came here looking for a podium, but to take a win is incredible – I’m over the moon.”
Next on the British GT Championship calendar is a visit to Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit for the sixth round of the season, over the weekend 10th/11th June.
British GT4 Championship Standings (after Rd5)
1st Stuart Middleton & Will Tregurtha, 92.5pts
British GT4 Championship – Silver Class Standings (after Rd5)
1st Stuart Middleton & Will Tregurtha, 105.5pts
