AND GRICE SECURES MAIDEN PODIUM
Total Control Racing's Carl Breeze utterly dominated the first day of action in the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup at Thruxton in Hampshire, Saturday, 30th April, by scorching to a comfortable pole position in qualifying and backing it up with a tremendous lights-to-flag victory.
Marking the championship front-runner's maiden success of 2011, the result has lifted Kings Lynn based Breeze into second in the driver standings and by virtue of this afternoon's fantastic drive he will also line-up on pole position for the first of tomorrow's two races at the 2.35-mile track.
Qualifying exactly 0.6 seconds faster than anyone else, Breeze managed to hold off the chasing pack at the beginning of round seven into the first corner, Allard, and then proceeded to control things from the front to build an impressive 5.2 second winning margin after 11 laps. Never looking realistically under serious threat, his victory marks his fifth podium from the first seven races and could well signal the true start of his 2011 title bid for Wednesbury based TCR.
Team-mate Joachim Ritter also showed fantastically strong pace during this morning's qualifying period but he wasn't able to capitalise on it at all due to a very unfortunate driveshaft failure ahead of the green-flag formation lap for round seven.
The Swiss-based Dane had an unfortunate excursion at the chicane in qualifying, which did break his suspension, but even so his fastest lap to that point still ended up good enough for fifth on the grid just 0.1 seconds shy of series leader Tom Sharp and only 0.2 seconds away from the front-row. Pumped-up for a strong race, Ritter had the bitter disappointment of peeling into the pitlane at the end of the out lap from the assembly area to end his involvement before it even started.
"We're delighted for Carl but really disappointed for Joachim", said TCR's Lee Brookes, "It's great to take the team's first win in Ginetta this year, Carl was in a league of his own in qualifying and in the race he did a great job. Joachim's pace has been fantastic this weekend so it's such a shame he wasn't able to show that in the race. We're sure he'll have a good couple of races tomorrow."
Rookie Grice seals deserved Clio Cup podium...TCR's podium success in the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK continued at Thruxton this afternoon with car racing rookie Tom Grice taking a hard-earned third place finish, heading home team-mate James Dixon just eight 10ths of a second further behind.
Having shown outstanding natural speed since the beginning of the season, the 18-year-old showed superb pace in qualifying today to secure a spot on the front-row of the grid for the fifth round of the championship - just missing out on a maiden pole position by a mere 0.016 seconds. Grice held second place off the line through Allard but soon after he slipped to third and for the first half of the race he pressured second placed Lee Pattison.
On lap eight though, a multi-car tangle caused chaos but Grice luckily emerged unscathed - despite receiving a tap to his rear quarter. Following an enforced Safety Car period, the re-start came on lap 14 for two further racing laps and Grice took a terrific third to claim his first - and very well deserved - Clio Cup podium. He also took the bonus points for the fastest lap of the race.
For double race winner Dixon, qualifying was frustrating as he ended the session an uncharacteristic eighth fastest but only 0.2 seconds away from pole position, such was the competitiveness of this morning's outing.
Latched on to the tail of the seven-car train ahead during the early stages, he grabbed seventh place into lap four and following the mid-race incident at Noble he managed to work his way through the chaos to grab fourth place where he remained to the flag to consolidate second in the standings, also moving to within just nine points of championship leader Paul Rivett. Nicolas Hamilton has certainly had the most eventful weekend of his rookie season and came through it all brilliantly to take his best result yet - 10th position.
The Hertfordshire racer, brother of Grand Prix star Lewis, had a high-speed spin during testing on Friday at Thruxton which resulted in heavy contact with the barriers and lost him vital track time. The TCR mechanics faced a monumental task to get Hamilton back on track for today's qualifying session but the team did an incredible job and he was able bounce back impressively with the 15th fastest time. Remaining out of trouble in the race, his drive to 10th was a much deserved reward for driver and team after the difficulties of Friday.
"It's fantastic to see Tom on the podium, we knew he had the pace and it could be the start of a good run for him", said Brookes, "We're really pleased to see James come through so well from eighth on the grid, they're valuable points for him.
The team did an incredible job to get Nic back out on track today and he handled it all brilliantly. Finishing 10th was a great effort." Round eight of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup will begin the action, Sunday, 1st May, at 10.45 with round nine following at 15.45.
In-between those races, round six of the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK will take place at 12.50. All of the racing from 11.30 onwards will be broadcast live on Freeview, cable and digital satellite channel ITV4, on ITV4 HD and online at itv.com/touringcars TCR's fourth Clio Cup driver, Mark Proctor, isn't in action at Thruxton this weekend due to family commitments.
Provisional 2011 AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK Driver Standings (after Rd5):2nd James Dixon, 122pts; 6th Tom Grice, 70pts; 15th Nicolas Hamilton, 37pts; 18th Mark Proctor, 12pts
Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup Driver Standings (after Rd7):2nd Carl Breeze, 167pts; 7th Joachim Ritter, 72pts
