NINTH WIN OF SEASON TAKES FREKE EVER CLOSER TO G50 CUP TITLE
Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup points leader Nathan Freke moved another step closer to placing one hand on the 2009 champion’s trophy at Silverstone National Circuit today, Saturday, 29th August, by securing his ninth victory of the season.
Increasing his advantage at the head of the standings to 79 points, the Century Motorsport driver certainly had to work extremely hard to win the 21st round of the championship with the very rapid Frank Wrathall constantly snapping away at Freke’s heels, especially during the closing stages.
At the finish on lap 20, Freke headed home Wrathall by a mere 0.155 seconds with the returning Chris Dittmann joining them on the podium – his fourth visit to the rostrum of the year – in what could well be the Mann Autoservices Racing driver’s last race meeting of 2009.
After the race, Freke said: “That was very tough! Frank (Wrathall) had good pace and as things wore on, the back of my car started to get a little bit twitchy so I had visions of the Knockhill spin all over again. Frank closed the gap right down but I managed to make it pretty much impossible for him to pass. We’ll make a couple of changes to the car for tomorrow and hopefully replicate the result.”
Featuring its biggest grid for several rounds, the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup provided some very close action during round 21 with the likes of Rob Austin, Richard Sykes and Tony Hughes returning along with Dittmann. The championship also welcomed a whole host of new faces including Ron Johnson, Neil Houston, Ken Rattenbury, Michael Broadhurst and Autosport journalist Ben Anderson.
During this morning’s qualifying session Freke secured pole position, his ninth of the campaign, with a time of 59.907 seconds (98.49mph) – shading Austin by just 0.058 seconds with Wrathall a mere 0.11 seconds further adrift. Dittmann achieved the fourth fastest time ahead of Carl Breeze and Tom Sharp while the lead Chairman’s Cup contender was Sykes, his first outing since late May.
At the beginning of the race, Freke got away from the line cleanly ahead of Austin while Breeze saw his attempts to make the most of a good start thwarted when boxed-in on the inside behind Dittman, allowing Sharp to move ahead. By the end of the lap though, Austin had been shuffled back down the order to sixth place behind Breeze.
Colards Motorsport’s Julien Draper retired at the complex on the opening lap resulting in the Safety Car being deployed and at the re-start on lap five, Freke led away well from Wrathall, Dittmann, Breeze, Sharp and Austin. Fulvio Mussi, meanwhile, defended his seventh place hard from a charging Benji Hetherington, the later posting the fastest lap on the fifth tour.
As the top six pulled further ahead, Mussi battled hard and worked miracles to stay ahead of his pursuers all the way to the chequered flag. Retirement for Hetherington three laps from the finish gave Sykes eighth position overall and he capped off a great return to the G50 Cup by claiming victory in the Chairman’s Cup class. Ever-improving Joachim Ritter was ninth ahead of Paul Sheard.
Back at the front, Freke held onto his lead from Wrathall but the Dynojet racer piled on the pressure as the race neared its conclusion as he tried to forced the series leader into mistake. Try as he might though, Freke couldn’t be toppled and he also took the bonus point for fastest race lap.
Dittmann impressed in third place ahead of Breeze, fourth position enabling the TCR driver to just stay ahead of Wrathall in the championship standings. Sharp took fifth in his IDL backed car with Austin a lonely sixth.
Commenting on his hugely competitive second place result, Wrathall said: “It is a little bit frustrating to not be racking up the wins like Nathan (Freke) and Carl (Breeze) have but the car has been great today and I’m driving well too. We’ve had really good pace today so hopefully that will continue in tomorrow’s races.”
Third placed Dittmann added: “I think this weekend could be our last of the year due to budget so it’s good to be on the podium. I’m very happy with our performance and the result.”
As Freke put yet more distance between himself and his pursuers in terms of the championship today, the battle for second place is as hot as ever with Wrathall now just five points behind Breeze ahead of tomorrow’s pair of races.
Round 22 of the 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup will get underway at approximately 10.10 in the morning, Sunday, 30th August, with the rescheduled 11th round of the campaign – cancelled from May’s Oulton Park event – set to commence at around 15.55. Please check listings for full details of live television coverage on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channel ITV4.
Provisional 2009 Ginetta G50 Cup Championship Positions (after Rd21):1st Nathan Freke, 595pts; 2nd Carl Breeze, 516pts; 3rd Frank Wrathall, 511pts; 4th Fulvio Mussi, 354pts; 5th Christian Dick, 325pts; 6th Tom Sharp, 318pts
