Total Control Racing enjoyed podium success in both the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK and Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup at Donington Park, Saturday, 16th April, with James Dixon and Carl Breeze each posting a second place finish in their respective races.
In the Clio Cup, Dixon and rookie team-mate Tom Grice began the weekend brilliantly for the Wednesbury squad by locking out the top two times in pre-event testing on Thursday. During this morning's round three and four qualifying session, both showed fantastic pace again with Dixon claiming pole position for each race - his first poles of the season.
The Stockbury racer, who took a victory at Brands Hatch during the season opener two weeks ago, wasn't able to convert his qualifying effort into a win but he did pressurise series leader Paul Rivett throughout and also saw off his pursuers to take a fine runner-up spot. Running in second place for the duration of the 14 lap encounter, after slipping behind Rivett at the start, Dixon did take the Graduate Cup win - his second of the season - and heading into the fourth round of the year on Sunday he is up to second in the points standings. Grice, who qualified an excellent third fastest and within just 0.157 seconds of pole position, missed out on a maiden podium largely due to an incident yards from the start when Lee Pattison's car was turned around in-front of the pack.
Although incurring car damage, Hockley driver Grice raced well to battle through and secure fifth place and during the closing stages he closed down fourth placed Adam Bonham markedly. At the chequered flag, just 0.7 seconds separated the pair and Grice managed to pull over two seconds clear of the chasing pack. Racing rookie Nicolas Hamilton, who garnered huge media attention during the season opening event with his Formula One World Champion brother Lewis in attendance, delivered a fantastic qualifying effort to post the 15th fastest time out of 18 runners with a lap of 1m19.180 seconds (89.98mph), just 1.4 seconds outside team-mate Dixon's pole effort.
The Hertfordshire teenager made a tremendous start and ran well inside the top 15, dicing with much more experienced racers - one of whom being fellow TCR driver, and former British Touring Car Championship entrant, Mark Proctor. In the end, Proctor's experience showed and the Bridlington driver fought through into 15th to post his first finish of the season. Hamilton, meanwhile, slipped to 17th in the end but did continue to improve his pace throughout. TCR team principal Lee Brookes said: "James definitely had a chance of the win, he did everything right in qualifying and it was all about the start in the end. Second is still a great result though and keeps him right in the championship hunt. Tom did pick up a bit of damage early on so to race as well as he did, and finish top five was a great effort. He's had great pace all weekend. "Unfortunately for Mark qualifying proved to be a bit of a problem but he's got his first finish of the year under his belt so hopefully he'll build from that. Nic did his best qualifying by far and acquitted himself well in his first proper race in among traffic, he really did a superb job."
Breeze maintains championship push in Ginetta...Like in the Clios, TCR showed fantastic pace in testing and qualifying for the Michelin GT Supercup with Carl Breeze leading the way on Thursday during practice and team-mate Joachim Ritter an outstanding third quickest. For round four qualifying this morning, Breeze looked well on course to fight for pole position but an unfortunate excursion into the gravel trap at the Old Hairpin after just a single flying lap resulted in the Kings Lynn racer being forced to sit-out the majority of the session.
Such was his early pace though, his best lap of 1m10.482 seconds (101.08mph) remained good enough to secure the third quickest time - a mere 0.084 seconds away from the outright pace. After the session though, pole-sitter Nathan Freke was penalised for having set his best time under yellow flags so Breeze moved up onto the front row of the grid for the first race of the weekend. Holding second place at the beginning, the TCR man saw off the challenge from behind and kept eventual race winner Tom Sharp honest throughout. In the end, just 1.1 seconds separated the pair at the chequered flag with Breeze securing his third podium from four races and, with it, a new lap record of 1m10.844 seconds (100.56mph). Ritter, meanwhile, qualified with the seventh fastest time but any hopes of underlining the pace and promise he showed from the beginning of the weekend were dashed on the opening lap when he was forced to retire at the first corner following contact. Bitterly disappointing for the Swiss-based businessman, he'll undoubtedly be one to watch tomorrow.
"Qualifying was a bit of a problem in the Ginettas but even so it worked out ok in the end with Carl on the front row and Joachim on the fourth row", said Brookes, "Joachim had very good pace from the off and it's such a shame he was forced out, he deserved far better than that. Carl did a good job to finish on the podium and take the point for fastest lap, he'll be fighting for the win tomorrow." Total Control Racing will be back in action at Donington Park, Sunday, 17th April, with rounds five and six of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup taking place at 10.45 and 16.25 respectively and the fourth round of the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK getting underway at 13.35. Live coverage of the Clio Cup encounter and the second Ginetta GT Supercup race will be screened on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channel ITV4, on the ITV4 HD channel and also online at itv.com/touringcars
