Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup championship front-runner Nathan Freke continued his rich vein of form at Oulton Park Island Circuit in Cheshire, Saturday, 30th May, by taking his fourth race victory on the trot.
The Century Motorsport driver, who started this afternoon’s 10th round of the campaign from second on the grid alongside pole-sitter and series leader Carl Breeze, closed the gap at the head of the standings to almost nothing ahead of Sunday’s encounter with a mere seven points now splitting the top two.
After dominating the Donington Park race meeting a couple of weeks ago, Freke produced good pace in the pre-event test at Oulton Park on Friday but it was Breeze who took the upper hand in qualifying by the slimmest of margins, just five 1000ths of a second separating the pair.
At the beginning of today’s 15-lap encounter, Breeze led away from pole position with Freke holding second place ahead of the fast-starting Frank Wrathall who leapt past Chris Dittman on the run through Old Hall. Behind, fifth placed Christian Dick remained ahead of Fulvio Mussi.
Although the top two were less than a second apart during the early laps, Breeze did look to have things in hand at the wheel of his Total Control Racing entered car. While the top five remained unchanged, sixth placed Mussi was under huge pressure from Tom Sharp – the latter up from ninth on the grid after a good start.
Into lap four, there was nothing between the pair as they headed into Old Hall with Sharp trying to run around the outside of Mussi through the corner. On the exit Sharp ran wide onto the grass which gave Mussi the breathing space he needed but it also meant Sharp lost a place to Joachim Ritter as fell down the order to an eventual finish of ninth position.
By lap five, the pendulum looked to be swinging in favour of Freke as he set the fastest lap of the race, and new lap record, of 1m27.466 seconds (91.61mph). Pressuring Breeze harder than ever, the TCR man still managed to remain at the front but the battle was allowing third placed Wrathall to edge closer in his Dynojet car as the race headed towards mid-distance.
The turning point came on lap seven when Breeze slid out of the lead at Old Hall, allowing Freke through into first place and Wrathall into second, Dick into third and Dittman into fourth. The erstwhile race leader did recover in fifth position but any hope of victory had gone.
Freke raced on to an unchallenged win by 1.2 seconds from Wrathall, the Preston-based driver very happy with his fourth top two result of the season, while Dick took his second podium of the year in third place – a fine drive from the Speedworks Motorsport boss,
The scrap over fourth place continued all the way to the chequered flag with the recovering Breeze just edging it on the line, sneaking ahead of Dittman by just 0.112 seconds on the run up the hill at Deer Leap. Sixth position went the way of Mussi in his YourRacingCar.com backed G50, with team-mate Ritter in seventh and Hampus Rydman eighth for Colards Motorsport.
Commenting on his fourth win in as many races, round 10 victor Freke said: “It didn’t go to plan off the start and then I made a big mistake at Lodge about three or four laps into the race which allowed Carl (Breeze) to get a gap. I knew we had a quick car though and when Carl had his slide at Old Hall I didn’t need a second invitation and we went through into the lead.”
The Chairman’s Cup class provided great entertainment as always with Paul Sheard taking his third win of the year in 10th place overall, just six 10ths of a second ahead of regular sparring partner Richard Sykes who, in turn, was 1.6 seconds ahead of Mark Proctor.
Class front-runner Colin White saw good early progress blunted on lap two with an excursion at Island Bend when he was boxed out on the outside. He did rejoin but ended the race last in 16th position. Nonetheless, the CWS racer is still the highest placed Chairman’s Cup driver in the overall title standings in eighth place.
Championship newcomer Ben Hetherington, team-mate to Freke, finished his first ever Ginetta G50 Cup race in 14th position.
In the 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup driver standings, Breeze continues to lead the way – albeit with a reduced margin – from Freke, with Wrathall a comfortable third and Dick fourth ahead of the unfortunate Sharp.
Round 11 of the 2009 championship is timetabled to take place at 15.10 tomorrow, Sunday, 31st May, at Oulton Park’s Island Circuit and will be screened live on Freeview, cable and digital satellite channel ITV4.
Breeze will once again start from pole position with Freke second on the grid and Dittman and Wrathall sharing row two.
Provisional 2009 Ginetta G50 Cup Championship Positions (after Rd10):1st Carl Breeze, 306pts; 2nd Nathan Freke, 299pts; 3rd Frank Wrathall, 259pts; 4th Christian Dick, 186pts; 5th Tom Sharp, 165pts; =6th Chris Dittman & Fulvio Mussi, 124pts
