FIRST WIN OF 2011 FOR BREEZE AS SHARP’S STREAK ENDS

 Carl Breeze thoroughly dominated the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup action at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire , Saturday, 30th April, to finally end Tom Sharp’s six-race winning streak and also climb into second place in the championship standings in the process.

 Untouchable in qualifying, Kings Lynn racer Breeze sealed pole position by an outstanding 0.6 seconds ahead of closest challenger Nathan Freke and his dominance was such he required just one real flying lap in which to do so.

 When the lights went out at the beginning of the afternoon’s seventh round of the season, the Total Control Racing driver fended off the early attentions of quick-starting third place qualifier Adam Morgan and from that point on controlled the race from the front – winning by over five seconds.

 Breeze commented: “The start was a bit tricky, we had a bit of a problem with the clutch but thankfully I was able to maintain the lead. I knew if I got through the complex ok that I could control the race and we did. The team did a great job with the car as always, it’s fantastic to be back on the top step of the podium.”

 In the G50 Class, reigning Ginetta Junior Champion Tom Ingram won again to increase his points lead to 40 with a tremendous performance. Qualifying on the class pole, a superb eighth fastest overall, the Plans Motorsport driver raced through to a stunning G50 victory in the overall top five.

 Embroiled in a fantastic class battle for most of the race with the impressive Aaron Williamson, Ingram managed to break clear of his rival around mid-distance and got ahead of G55 runner Colin White on the penultimate tour to cap a truly outstanding day’s work.

 “This is a perfect start to the season for us”, said Ingram, “Getting pole position again and another win means it’s looking good so far. We’ve just got to keep this going now. It was a tough race, into Goodwood the wind was very strong and I was getting some mega understeer towards the end. It’s a fantastic result, hopefully tomorrow can be another good day for us.”

 GT Supercup championship picture begins to change during round seven...While Breeze lined up on pole position ahead of round seven, his TCR team-mate Joachim Ritter had a much worse time of things when he had to pit with a broken drive-shaft before even forming up on the grid ahead of the green-flag lap. Having qualified a terrific fifth fastest, despite an unfortunate excursion in this morning’s session which broke the suspension, he was unable to begin the race.

Back on the track itself, Morgan got the best getaway of the top qualifiers from third place but Breeze was just able to hold him off through Allard with front-row starter Freke slotting in to third and Sharp maintaining fourth place ahead of White.

With the order at the front unchanged as the cars hurtled up Woodham Hill to end lap one, George Murrells had to miss-out the chicane and so slipped back down the order behind the leading G50 runners Ingram, Williamson and Andrew Richardson.

Breeze punched in the fastest lap of the race on the second tour of 1m17.027 seconds (110.11mph) and this remained unbeaten throughout the 11-lapper. Extending his lead by relatively small margins during the early stages, the 2010 Vice-Champion made bigger gains as the race wore on with Morgan coming under huge pressure from Freke and, in the end, Sharp as well.

With Breeze out front by 1.7 seconds at the end of lap five, Morgan continued to fight hard to stay ahead of Freke with Sharp closing. White, meanwhile, in fifth place was being reeled in by Ingram and Williamson and by lap eight the trio were nose-to-tail.

Ingram had a look at Allard at the beginning of the ninth tour but White kept the door closed. Then, on lap 10, the High Wycombe driver made his way by after getting excellent drive out of the chicane and just having his nose far enough ahead into the first turn.

Breeze took the chequered flag on lap 11 some 5.2 seconds clear of Morgan who, in turn, was just 0.6 seconds ahead of Freke after a fantastic defensive performance. Sharp closed to within the same distance of the 2009 Champion by the finish with Ingram fifth overall.

White achieved another top six to continue his consistent beginning to 2011 with Williamson second in G50 and seventh overall, just 1.8 seconds shy. Alistair James took eighth place, having started 10th, with Andrew Richardson third in G50 in ninth position overall ahead of the recovering Murrells.

For series leader Sharp, fourth place certainly wasn’t a bad result by any measure but it did mark the first time this year the IDL driver hasn’t finished on the podium. Nonetheless, going into tomorrow’s pair of races the Camberley 19-year-old still heads the championship table by more than 70 points.

Round eight of the 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup will get underway at 10.45, Sunday, 1st May, with round nine following at 15.45. Live television coverage of the race meeting will be screened from 11.00 on Freeview, cable and digital satellite channel ITV4, on the ITV4 HD channel and it will also be streamed online at itv.com/touringcars

Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup Championship Positions (after Rd7):1st Tom Sharp, 238pts; 2nd Carl Breeze, 167pts; 3rd George Murrells, 154pts; 4th Adam Morgan, 146pts; 5th Colin White, 118pts; 6th Nathan Freke, 100pts

Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup ‘G50 Class’ Championship Positions (after Rd7):1st Tom Ingram, 193pts; 2nd Jody Fannin, 153pts; 3rd Robert Gaffney, 146pts; 4th Jake Hill, 127pts; =5th Aaron Williamson & Louise Richardson, 114pts