Tom Sharp’s winning streak in the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup came to an end at Thruxton and his lead is under pressure as the championship heads to Oulton Park this weekend.
Three races at the high-speed Thruxton circuit last time out should have allowed Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup leader Tom Sharp (IDL) to increase his championship lead. Instead, he struggled through the weekend with just one podium finish to cheer about. Tom, a real revelation in the early races, had spoken about how his driving style suits the new-for-2011 Ginetta G55 better than its predecessor, the G50. However, his tyres couldn’t live with the demands of Thruxton and he lost pace with the leaders in all three races. That meant that after six wins in six races, Sharp had to watch other faces appear atop the podium: Carl Breeze won races one and three for TCR and Adam Morgan backed up his G50 win at Croft last season by scoring honours in race two for Ciceley Racing. Sharp, meanwhile, elected to run three new tyres for the final race and copped a five-place grid drop for each new tyre. He started stone last but tigered up to third.
All three are potential winners this weekend, as is reigning Ginetta Challenge Champion George Murrells (Optimum Motorsport), while National Hot Rod hero Colin White scored a popular outright podium by finishing third at Thruxton.
Against the new G55s are the older G50s where Tom Ingram (Plans Motorsport) has a 60-point lead over Jody Fannin (Team Pyro) with the score five: two in favour of Ingram. Jake Hill (Optimum Motorsport) and Andy Richardson (Richardson Racing) are the other winners in a very competitive class, while Aaron Williamson (FML) can’t be discounted. Louise Richardson will be aiming to be back to full speed here after her car was badly damaged in a startline crash at Thruxton, while Robert Gaffney (Meridian Motorsport) is after a maiden win, too.
Qualifying for the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup takes place on Saturday June 4th at 10:55 with race one (over 15 laps) at 15:55. Race two runs on Sunday, with the race blasting into life at 13:40.
