Carl Breeze pulled further away at the top of the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup championship standings at Snetterton in Norfolk, Saturday, 7th August, after taking two very popular race victories at his local track for the Total Control Racing team.
The Kings Lynn driver, who now leads the way by 34 points, was in great form throughout today’s action at the 1.95-mile circuit. Starting off by securing pole position during qualifying, Breeze went on to take two very important wins in the 15th and 16th rounds of the campaign.
Getting away well at the start of the opening encounter, Breeze was never headed on his way to the sixth win of the year for TCR. Originally opening up a two second gap at the front, his advantage was nullified on lap four following the deployment of the Safety Car due to an accident at Riches Corner.
Undoing all of his hard work, the re-start meant Breeze was back in the clutches of his pursuers and although he was put under serious pressure he handled it perfectly to keep chief rival Frank Wrathall at bay by a few 10ths of a second at the chequered flag on lap 14.
In round 16, which took place on a drying track, the pole-sitter again made the position count by holding the lead through Riches for the first time. Pressured hard during the early laps, the complexion of the race changed on the fifth tour when Wrathall made contact with the rear of Breeze’s car at Sear as the pair braked hard in the difficult conditions.
The result was an unfortunate moment for Wrathall which dropped him down the order but Breeze managed to continue without delay and raced to an eventual winning margin of over 10 seconds from his closest challenger Tom Sharp.
Team-mate Joachim Ritter did a good job to qualify within a second of Breeze’s pole position time in 13th place and to go on to record a top 14 finish in race one and an improved 11th place result in the second outing, especially bearing in mind he’s feeling seriously under the weather this weekend.
In difficult conditions in round 16, the Swiss-based driver coped well and his lap times were within nine 10ths of a second of those managed by Breeze. Combining today’s results, Ritter is tied in 10th place in the championship on 162 points.
TCR team principal Lee Brookes said: “We’re delighted to take another two wins with Carl, he did a great job and exactly what he needed to do – take more points away from Frank (Wrathall). Joachim hasn’t felt at all well this weekend so to take two good finishes is as much as we could ask of him.”
Impressive Dixon takes maiden Clio Cup pole and podiumFirst year ELF Renault Clio Cup racer James Dixon enjoyed by far his best weekend as a TCR driver since moving into the category earlier in the season with an absolutely tremendous performance in qualifying and race conditions at Snetterton today.
Taking his first career pole position by just 0.023 seconds from team-mate Sam Tordoff, and becoming the first driver this year to keep championship leader Dave Newsham off the top spot, Kent-based Dixon looked to have the cards stacked against him for this afternoon’s 11th round of the season when the onset of rain served up his maiden experience of Clio action in the wet.
Making a great start though, Dixon held the lead through the first two turns and repelled Newsham but into the last corner, Russell Chicane, the veteran racer sliced up the inside to take the lead away and push Dixon into the clutches of Tordoff.
Dixon pressed on though and held on superbly to second place, managing to keep the ever-rapid Tordoff and Lee Pattison behind. Tordoff’s third place finish marked his ninth podium of the year and continued his run of never being off the rostrum in any race he has finished in 2010. In addition, the Leeds racer achieved two bonus points for posting the quickest lap of the race – 1m24.951 seconds.
Mike Robinson qualified fourth fastest for TCR but the series regular struggled with the car from mid-distance and slipped to an eventual finish of ninth place, having been on course for a fighting top five result early on.
“We were really hoping for that win in Clios today”, said Brookes, “With James and Sam on the front row we thought we’d cracked it having done all the hard work in qualifying. Even though that win is still eluding us, James and Sam both raced really well.
“James went into the race blind really as he’d never been in a Clio in the wet before and that left the door open for (Dave) Newsham to find the limit quicker. He did a fantastic job though, we’re delighted for him to take his first pole and podium – we knew he had this potential from day one.”
Brookes added: “Sam was very quick, as always, and showed his consistency yet again. He has pole for Sunday’s race so there’s another chance there for us to try and get that first win of 2010. Mike’s car got a bit too lively for him in the middle part of the race so he dropped back a bit unfortunately but, again, his pace wasn’t bad at all.”
Round 12 of the ELF Renault Clio Cup will take place at 11.00 tomorrow, Sunday, 8th August, with the 17th round of the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup – which is expected to be screened live on Freeview, cable and digital satellite channel ITV4 – following at around 13.30.
2010 ELF Renault Clio Cup Standings (after Rd11):Drivers: 3rd Sam Tordoff, 246pts; 4th Mike Robinson, 215pts; 11th James Dixon, 92ptsTeam: 2nd Total Control Racing, 490pts
2010 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup Standings (after Rd16):Drivers: 1st Carl Breeze, 475pts; 10th Joachim Ritter, 162ptsTeam: 2nd Total Control Racing, 667pts
