SPOILS AT CROFT
Championship leader Nathan Freke increased his advantage in the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup driver standings to a whopping 52 points at Croft Circuit, Sunday, 14th June, after claiming his sixth win of the year in round 13 and finishing runner-up to Frank Wrathall in a rain-affected round 14.
While Freke and Wrathall celebrated, the latter’s second victory of the season lifting him into second in the driver standings, for Carl Breeze the day was nothing short of a disaster. Forced to retire from the first race after clipping a tyre stack at the Jim Clark Esses, the resulting damage to his G50 – a brand new car this weekend – meant he had to sit-out round 14.
Losing a huge amount of ground to chief rival Freke, the only consolation erstwhile series leader Breeze can take from the weekend is that he now has a seven week break from action before the next event at the beginning of August, during which he will be able to recuperate fully from the severe injuries he sustained at Oulton Park a fortnight ago.
Freke started round 13 from pole position and made no mistakes in getting away from the line cleanly to lead Breeze through Clervaux for the first time with Christian Dick moving up into third place ahead of Fulvio Mussi, Frank Wrathall and series newcomer Diego Freitas.
For the first few laps, the top five cars remained very close but Freitas’ efforts to join the front-running train came to nothing on lap three when he ran wide out of the chicane and lost several places as he bounced across the grass – eventually rejoining in 10th position.
Dick, meanwhile, was producing some inspired driving and looked more than a match for the pace of Freke and Breeze ahead. Into lap seven, the top five were still only covered by a little over two seconds as the race shaped up to be one of the closest G50 Cup encounters of the year.
Wrathall moved past Mussi for fourth at Tower Bend on the seventh tour but the most dramatic moment of the race came just ahead of the aforementioned pairing when the front-left of Breeze’s car clipped the tyre stack at the Esses as he pressured Freke. Launching his Total Control Racing-run car into the air, luckily it came to rest on its wheels in the field on the outside of the track.
Thankfully uninjured, Breeze was nonetheless an immediate retirement with severe damage to the front end of the car. Further inspection by TCR showed the chassis had actually been broken in the force of the impact. This meant Freke led Dick into lap eight but on lap 13, charging Dynojet driver Wrathall managed to usurp the Speedworks Motorsport racer for second place.
On the final lap, Tom Sharp –while challenging Mussi for fourth place at the hairpin – spun out of contention and ended up dropping to seventh with Mussi taking fourth, Hampus Rydman claiming fifth and Freitas taking an impressive sixth in only his second G50 Cup race.
Speaking on his double ‘hat-trick’ with his sixth win in six races, Freke said: “That was a very tough race, the car was moving around a hell of a lot and on the first lap I understeered really wide at the Esses but, luckily, every time I made a mistake so did the guys behind. Fortunately for me, Croft is a circuit where it’s very difficult to pass in a G50 so that did help.”
Round 14 saw Freke’s recent run of domination come to an end following an outstanding drive by Wrathall who made his first visit to the top step of the rostrum since round two at Brands Hatch at the beginning of April.
With Breeze not assuming first place on the grid due to his car having sustained too much damage in the earlier accident, pole position effectively went to Freke and the race actually started behind the Safety Car following very heavy rain during the preceding British Touring Car Championship event.
Continued rainfall made conditions very tricky for the Ginetta drivers but the race got underway at full racing speed on lap three with Freke leading Mussi, Wrathall, Dick, Freitas and Sharp. Into Barcroft, Wrathall produced a fantastic move to pass Mussi for second place and he then set about pressuring Freke for the lead.
On lap five, Freke ran wide out of Hawthorn and cut the chicane but Wrathall still couldn’t quite find a way through. On lap eight though, a mistake by the leader into Sunny In gave Wrathall the chance to nip up the inside and he moved ahead on the run through Sunny Out. Meanwhile at Tower Bend, Tom Sharp served up a stunning move around the outside of Mussi to grab third position.
As soon as he was ahead Wrathall looked very comfortable and although Freke did close again over the last couple of laps, the former took the win and fastest lap to move up into second place in the standings. Freke’s second place was his 10th podium visit of the year while Sharp took a well deserved maiden podium. Mussi finished fourth, Rydman fifth and Freitas sixth.
Speaking on his popular win, Wrathall said: “That one couldn’t have gone any better, you just rely on the car set-up and feel in those conditions but the team gave me such a good car. I could see Nathan (Freke) catching again towards the end but I did enough to hold on. I’m really happy.”
In the Chairman’s Cup battle, Colin White was the sole participant this weekend and therefore took all three wins while retaining ninth position in the overall championship standings. The Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup now takes a lengthy seven week break from competition with rounds 15, 16 and 17 scheduled to take place on 1st/2nd August at Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk.
Provisional 2009 Ginetta G50 Cup Championship Positions (after Rd14; Rd11 to be rescheduled):1st Nathan Freke, 403pts; 2nd Frank Wrathall, 351pts; 3rd Carl Breeze, 336pts; 4th Christian Dick, 248pts; 5th Tom Sharp, 216pts; 6th Fulvio Mussi, 190pts
