James Dixon kept up the pressure on AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK championship leader Paul Rivett at Oulton Park in Cheshire, Saturday, 4th June, by taking his - and Total Control Racing's - third category race win of the season with a tremendous performance.
The Wednesbury squad, a multiple title winner in Clio Cup racing, came close to getting two of its drivers on the round seven podium but Tom Grice had to settle for fourth place in the end during, what was, quite a sedate outing all told.
Dixon and Grice locked-out the front-row in qualifying for TCR, just 0.052 seconds separating the pair, while car racing rookie Nicolas Hamilton - brother of 2008 FIA Formula One World Champion Lewis - was a very impressive 14th fastest, two spots ahead of the returning Mark Proctor who had to miss the Thruxton event several weeks ago.
Getting away very well from pole position, his third of the season, Dixon didn't put a wheel wrong over the course of the 12 laps and despite intense pressure he maintained excellent composure to make it a hat-trick of wins for 2011.
In addition he also won the Graduate Cup Class for a fourth time and, in a poignant moment atop the podium, Dixon dedicated the success to TCR's late director Graham Pearce who very sadly passed away a few weeks ago.
Grice wasn't able to make the most of his front-row start unfortunately and slipped to fifth at the beginning but managed to get back into fourth midway through the opening lap. With never more than a few 10ths of a second between the top six, anything could have happened but in the end the race order remained set with Grice taking fourth to move up into the championship top seven.
Hamilton, making his competitive debut at the hugely demanding Oulton Park, once again delivered a superb account of himself.
Although losing ground at the start, he battled back brilliantly and after moving into 15th place just after mid-distance he closed down team-mate Proctor rapidly. At the chequered flag, just 0.5 seconds split the TCR pairing - Proctor's finish marking a key moment as the first time he has been back in action at the Cheshire track since his horrendous Ginetta G50 Cup accident back in 2009.
Proctor also secured the 'Masters Cup' class win. "We're obviously delighted to have taken another win, James did a great job and drove a faultless race from pole really", said TCR team principal Lee Brookes, "It's a shame for Tom he wasn't able to make the start he needed as he had the pace for a podium for sure but he did race well. It was great to see Nic and Mark racing hard together too, they both did a very good job."
Breeze continues to close on GT Supercup lead...Round 10 of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup brought a fifth podium on the trot for TCR's Carl Breeze, the championship contender taking a hard-fought second place finish to move to within 33 points of the series lead.
Qualifying on pole position and leading the race comfortably during the early going, Breeze came under pressure just before mid-distance and on lap eight into Old Hall a robust pass by Nathan Freke relegated the TCR man to second. Although he wasn't able to re-challenge for the lead, Breeze held on to second position to bag his eighth podium in total for the year and solidify his push for the inaugural Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup crown. Team-mate Joachim Ritter didn't have the best start to his weekend and will be hoping for better during round 11 tomorrow, Sunday, 5th June.
Arriving at Oulton Park sixth in the driver standings, the Swiss-based racer has unfortunately slipped to seventh after a very difficult time of things. Not able to run at his usual pace and therefore qualifying in an unrepresentative 16th position, the team worked hard to identify the problem with Ritter's car and the issue was thought to be damper-related. In race conditions though, Ritter still struggled for pace and finished a very uncharacteristic 14th overall.
"It's good to be on the podium again and the points are really important for Carl in terms of the championship", said Brookes, "We're really disappointed with the problems Joachim had though, we're not sure exactly what's been causing the issue but we'll get to the bottom of it."
Round 11 of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup will take place at 13.40 , Sunday, 5th June, with round eight of the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK following at 15.10 - both races will be screened live on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channel ITV4, on the ITV4 HD channel and the action will also be streamed live online at itv.com/touringcars
