Six wins from six races in the 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup mean Tom Sharp is unquestionably the most successful driver on the entire British Touring Car Championship package at present – and the 19-year-old from Camberley is showing no signs of giving that mantle up any time soon.
At Donington Park today, Sunday, 17th April, the IDL driver added the fifth and sixth wins of the year to his remarkable tally. Scorching to another lights-to-flag victory in round five, Sharp fought through from fifth on the round six ‘reverse grid’ to prove he can win from the front or from in the pack.
“We’ve made really good progress with the car”, said the runaway points leader, “It’s not doing anything out of the ordinary but it is doing everything I want it to. It hangs on in there and I’m able to keep delivering good lap times at the end of a race as well as early on. Winning the first six races is something we never dreamt of but it’s a great feeling to have done that.
“I think I have clicked more with the G55, the front splitter has really helped as I don’t like a car that understeers and the G50 was more inherently under-steery. The splitter has done away with that problem and it seems to suit me well, it’s a different way of driving. You definitely have to look after the tyres and we’ve been able to do that.”
While Sharp can seem to do no wrong at the moment, several of the perceived title favourites keep encountering more than their share of misfortune. Total Control Racing’s Carl Breeze, who had his share of problems during the season-opener at Brands Hatch, was again a victim of bad luck when his car developed a throttle sensor issue at the beginning of the first of today’s encounters.
With Sharp on pole and Breeze alongside, the stage was set for a great battle between the two but Breeze couldn’t get away from the line and was incredibly lucky not to be collected as the rest of the grid came rushing past when the lights went out. He did eventually get going but soon ground to a halt and although able to recover to the pits, attempts to rectify the issue didn’t bear fruit.
Nathan Freke, 2009 Ginetta G50 Cup Champion, had problems of his own before round five even began when he was forced to pit at the end of the green flag lap with a driveshaft failure. So, with two main rivals out of the picture Sharp’s task was made that bit easier.
Even so, he still had to fend off Adam Morgan, George Murrells and Freddie Hetherington but this he managed comfortably. Scorching away at the front, at the end of lap 16 Sharp’s winning margin was over five seconds.
Morgan, Murrells and Hetherington were very closely matched throughout but in the end, Cicely Racing’s Morgan took second place – his third of the year – while Murrells claimed his second podium in GT Supercup a shade clear of Hetherington.
In G50, Aaron Williamson took an excellent early lead – rising from fourth in class on the grid – and the best of the wheel-to-wheel action came from the second tier of the series. The lead changed hands lap after lap but everything came to a head on what turned out to be unlucky for some lap 13.
Fantastic door handle-to-door handle action between Tom Ingram and Andrew Richardson down the Craner Curves saw Ingram get the class lead but Richardson fought back out of the Old Hairpin. With the latter slightly wide on the outside at Schwantz Curve, everything went wrong seconds later as he was turned around into the path of Williamson and the pair collected the very unfortunate Ingram.
With all three out on the spot, Jody Fannin came through in the end to take the win with Louise Richardson second and Jake Hill taking third place. Ahead of this trio on the road were Colin White in fifth – a position which would give him pole position on the reverse grid for round six – and Joachim Ritter who produced one of his best ever races with a remarkable drive from last on the grid.
Reflecting on the race, Fannin said: “You’ve always got to think you can win but starting fifth in class I knew it would be tough. It was a really action-packed race, I knew if I could hang back a bit then there might be an opportunity later on and there was! I kept it sensible and it worked.”
For the final race of the weekend, White got away well from pole at the start and did a sterling job to fend off Hetherington and Murrells but by lap five Sharp was into second place – from fifth. It took him just a couple of laps to despatch White from the lead and after dealing with a late race Safety Car period Sharp took win number six by almost three seconds.
Freke and Breeze, meanwhile, each produced a fantastic performance to come through from the back row of the grid to finish in third and fourth places respectively. The tight battle between the pair was settled on the last lap when Freke threw his car up the inside into McLeans, there was contact and Breeze had to settle for a still impressive fourth.
Hetherington took second place, marking his best finish of the weekend, while Murrells slipped to sixth splitting the G50 cars of class winner Hill in an excellent fifth overall and Ingram in seventh. The Plans Motorsport driver, like Breeze and Freke, had to fight through from the tail of the field. Pole-sitter White, meanwhile, eventually finished ninth behind Fannin following a spin at the chicane.
Speaking on his first G50 Class win, Hill said: “In a race scenario it’s quite a level playing field really between the two classes, the G55s have a bigger advantage in qualifying but in the races you can all battle well. Finishing fifth overall is great, I’m really happy to be back on the podium with the win.”
Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire will host the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds of the 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup a fortnight from now on Saturday, 30th April, and Sunday, 1st May.
Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup Championship Positions (after Rd6):1st Tom Sharp, 216pts; 2nd George Murrells, 138pts; 3rd Carl Breeze, 126pts; 4th Adam Morgan, 116pts; 5th Colin White, 98pts; 6th Nathan Freke, 78pts
Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup ‘G50 Class’ Championship Positions (after Rd6):1st Jody Fannin, 158pts; 2nd Tom Ingram, 156pts; 3rd Robert Gaffney, 124pts; 4th Jake Hill, 111pts; 5th Louise Richardson, 92pts; 6th Aaron Williamson, 88pts
