TCR and Breeze Just Miss-Out On 2011 Ginetta Title

‏Total Control Racing missed out on claiming the 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup title by a mere five points at Silverstone National Circuit on Sunday, 16th October, with team driver Carl Breeze incredibly unlucky to lose, what would have been, a deserved championship win.Going into round 27 with a four point advantage over Adam Morgan, the TCR man knew he had a tough fight on his hands but at the start of the race everything looked to be working well as Breeze got ahead of his chief title rival to hold third place behind Nathan Freke and Tom Sharp.In that order, the championship was in the hands of TCR but after a fairly lengthy six-lap Safety Car period - caused when Jody Fannin collected the pitwall when trying to avoid the car of Breeze's rookie team-mate Jamie Orton at the start - things took a twist.First, Morgan managed to get a run on Breeze to take third place but the Kings Lynn driver hit back later in the lap at Luffield to re-assume the position. From there, arch-rival Freke defended second place very heavily and try as he might there just wasn't a way by for the championship leader.

All the while Freke was defending and slowing up the TCR man, so it enabled Morgan to challenge and on lap 12 the latter grabbed third position at Luffield by tapping the right-rear of Breeze's car which made him run wide on the exit - allowing Morgan up the inside. Determined to fight back, Breeze had to fend off the fresh attention of George Murrells but he remained composed.Then, on lap 19, the door was left open at Brooklands by Freke for Morgan to take second place unchallenged which meant the championship pendulum had completely swung in the latter's favour. Breeze did his best to pressure Freke for third but no change was forthcoming and his rival's defence was once again more robust.Breeze ended the race in fourth so concludes the 2011 season the same way he ended the 2010 instalment, as Vice-Champion and tantalisingly close to what would have been a richly deserved title success. For TCR, missing out on the championship at the final hurdle was a bitter blow."This has been out of the team's control and Carl's control", said TCR team principal Lee Brookes, "In the end we've finished second which is disappointing. Carl has driven superbly all year and the boys in the team have done a cracking job, I can't fault any of them.

"You can always look back and find occasions when you should have won, or finished a bit higher up the order, but that's the same for everyone. Second is still a good result but still very disappointing when you know you should have won it."Orton's maiden weekend in the Ginetta GT Supercup ended very unfortunately with the stall on the grid, a great shame for the Caterham Superlight R300 regular as his qualifying pace was incredible and could easily have delivered two very strong race results.Brookes added: "It's a real shame for Jamie the way things turned out in the races with the starts as his pace has been superb, to come in and be so quick - faster than a lot of drivers who've been doing this for a while - shows the ability he's got. We'd love to see him back in a TCR car next year."


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