MORE VICTORY CELEBRATIONS FOR TCR AS BREEZE WINS AGAIN AT BRANDS
Carl Breeze continued Total Control Racing’s winning start to 2009 at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent, Sunday, 5th April, by securing his second race victory of the weekend during the third round of the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup.
Marking the Wednesbury team’s first main-season weekend in the category, Lee Brookes’ squad couldn’t have wished for a better start to the championship with Breeze leading the title race by 12 points after the opening three rounds.
Backing up the win with a third place finish in the earlier second round, which then became second position after a penalty for Nathan Freke, Kings Lynn-based Breeze concluded a near dream weekend in grand style this afternoon with a dominant 5.5 second margin over chief rivals Nathan Freke and Frank Wrathall.
For team-mate Fulvio Mussi, the day proved to be quite frustrating as his undoubted pace was compromised by a couple of sluggish starts. In the first of today’s G50 races, the former Clio Cup and GT competitor stalled on the line but fought back very well indeed into a top seven finish. He then repeated the effort in round three to secure fifth position in the championship at this early stage.
Team principal Lee Brookes commented: “We struggled in race two a bit towards the end, the car started to go off and it was one of those situations where Carl got caught and then there was contact. I don’t think we would have lost the race if he hadn’t have been touched though.
“The incident made us look at the car, make some improvements and up our pace which we did in round three to make sure they couldn’t catch us. Fulvio did stall unfortunately in the first of today’s races but he did a good job to come back through to seventh. We’ll look into why the stall happened but we know Fulvio will definitely be at the front fighting with Carl, that’s for sure.”
In the ever-popular ELF Renault Clio Cup, Alex MacDowall once again spear-headed the TCR charge today and claimed a fine podium in third place to add to his runner-up spot in the first round of the season on Saturday.
Starting the race on pole position, MacDowall couldn’t quite hold onto his advantage as the lights went out and he was then pushed down a further place by Aron Smith on the exit of Druids. He fought on though with terrific pace but overtaking was almost impossible on the 1.2-mile track.
In the end, his best race lap of 52.851 seconds was just two 100ths of a second shy of the one posted by race winner Philip Glew.
Mike Robinson endured a very difficult and luckless outing, first starting with a tangle at Druids Hairpin and then retiring at the same corner on lap 11. As a consistent front-runner in 2008, Robinson will certainly be aiming for a reversal in fortunes during the next couple of rounds.
Sam Tordoff bagged his best result of the year with a strong 11th place and, impressively, his times were just four 10ths of a second outside the overall pace. TCR’s fourth Clio Cup car, driven by Jamie Ackers, enjoyed a good, consistent run and saw the youngster achieve a fighting 16th place to earn some valuable championship points.
“Alex has had a great weekend”, added Brookes, “He wanted to keep it clean out there and come away with a lot of points and that’s what he went out and did. Taking a second and a third this weekend was fantastic and he was pushing all the time, his pace was great. He’s absolutely chuffed to bits and if we can just improve his starts slightly, the wins will come.
“Mike got caught up at the start and as he was coming back through the order, I gather someone had a bit of a lunge and it put him off the circuit. He had some bad luck but qualifying didn’t go according to plan. Sam raced very well to be on the edge of the top 10 and Jamie had a good run to 16th place. It’s been a great start to the season in both championships, we’re happy.”
There is now a three-week break in race activity for TCR’s Clio Cup and Ginetta G50 operations with the next race meeting taking place over the weekend 25th/26th April at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire, the fastest track on the 2009 race calendar.
Provisional 2009 ELF Renault Clio Cup Standings (after Rd2):Drivers: 2nd Alex MacDowall, 55pts; =12th Mike Robinson & Sam Tordoff, 16pts; 18th Jamie Ackers, 7ptsTeam: 2nd Total Control Racing, 79pts
Provisional 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup Standings (after Rd3):1st Carl Breeze, 104pts; 5th Fulvio Mussi, 54pts
