Tom Sharp continued the outstanding form he showed at Brands Hatch a fortnight ago during the first of this weekend’s three Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup races at Donington Park, Saturday, 16th April, to secure his fourth victory in as many outings.
Delighted and surprised in equal measure, the IDL driver goes into Sunday’s fifth and sixth rounds of the 2011 season with a considerable 40-point margin over Total Control Racing’s Carl Breeze and on the strength of his pace today it won’t be a shock if the winning momentum continues.
Somewhat fortunate to begin round four on pole position, after 2009 champion Nathan Freke had his best qualifying time disallowed due to a yellow flag infringement, Sharp scorched away at the start of the 12-lap encounter and managed to maintain a gap of around one second over Breeze for the duration.
“I’m really happy with the result today, to take four wins from four starts is fantastic and not at all what we expected when the season began”, said the championship leader, “We had some problems with the brakes at the start of the weekend but the guys from Ginetta helped with that.
“I certainly didn’t expect to do the qualifying time we managed – I was a bit surprised by that. The race wasn’t as easy as it might have looked, Carl (Breeze) was never far behind although my car did really come on towards the end. That’s something we’ve tried to focus on and it worked really well.”
Breeze had his own dramas in qualifying after an excursion early in the session at the Old Hairpin but such was his speed, the multiple race winner and title contender still ended up finishing the session with the third quickest lap – despite only completing one true hot lap.
With Freke’s penalty, Breeze assumed a spot on the front row alongside Sharp and the pair were the only drivers to lap below the 1m11 second barrier in the race – Breeze setting the lap record for the brand new Ginetta G55 with a time of 1m10.844 seconds (100.56mph) to also take a bonus point.
Adam Morgan, who finished third to notch up his third podium of the season for Cicely Racing, got very close to challenging Breeze the first time through Redgate but the 2010 Vice-Champion held the inside line firmly and was never again pressurised.
Morgan actually slipped to fourth on lap one at McLeans when Freke, who started fourth after his qualifying penalty, shot through with a good pass. The latter saw his hard work undone though at the Old Hairpin on the second tour when his race ended with an excursion into the gravel trap.
The race among the leading G55 contenders largely settled down after that with Sharp and Breeze comfortable at the front, Morgan taking third ahead of Optimum Motorsport’s George Murrells with the returning Freddie Hetherington fifth for Century Motorsport.
Ingram wins again in G50 to increase points lead...As at Brands Hatch during the season opener, the battle for honours in the G50 Class involved former Ginetta Junior rivals Tom Ingram and Jake Hill. Although both running on extremely tight budgets, the pair still race as hard as anyone and there was little to choose early on.
Ingram took the class pole position with a qualifying time of 1m11.728 seconds (99.32mph), just 0.013 seconds quicker than Hill but, importantly, with the G55 of Australian driver Jordan Skinner splitting them.
Moving into the overall top six on lap two, following retirements for Plans Motorsport team-mate Alistair James and TCR’s Joachim Ritter, Ingram led the class but had Hill glued to his rear wing throughout the early exchanges.
Meridian Motorsport’s Robert Gaffney benefitted from a terrific start to the race to rise from fourth in G50 and 14th overall to latch onto the tail of the Ingram/Hill battle. He faded later in the race though and lost eighth overall to G55 runner Colin White – another to suffer a qualifying penalty.
Ingram stayed ahead of Hill and at mid-distance looked to have the measure of the Optimum driver and so it proved as the reigning Ginetta Junior Champion opened up a 2.8 second cushion before the finish to seal his second class victory of the campaign. Ingram also posted the fastest lap, and new Donington lap record for the Ginetta G50, with a time of 1m11.732 seconds (99.32mph).
More great action is expected from the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup, Sunday, 17th April, with round five getting underway at 10.45 and round six following at 16.25 – the second race will be screened live on cable, digital satellite and Freeview channel ITV4, and on the ITV4 HD channel, with additional live streaming online at itv.com/touringcars
Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup Championship Positions (after Rd4):1st Tom Sharp, 144pts; 2nd Carl Breeze, 104pts; 3rd George Murrells, 92pts; 4th Adam Morgan, 86pts; 5th Colin White, 60pts; 6th Clint Bardwell, 54pts
Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup ‘G50 Class’ Championship Positions (after Rd4):1st Tom Ingram, 124pts; 2nd Jody Fannin, 96pts; 3rd Robert Gaffney, 82pts; 4th Aaron Williamson, 70pts; 5th Andrew Richardson, 66pts; 6th Jake Hill, 50pts
