Total Control Racing’s Carl Breeze increased his lead in the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup at the new Snetterton 300 Circuit, Saturday, 6th August, with victory during round 15 and second place to 2009 Champion Nathan Freke in round 16.
Norfolk-based Breeze boosted his advantage in the championship to 35 points thanks to a pair of very strong results on home soil while arch-rival Freke continued his mid-season upturn with his fourth victory from the last seven races at the wheel of his theplayer.co.uk/Century Motorsport G55.
Behind those two, Cicely Racing’s Adam Morgan added two more podiums to his impressive tally to move within nine points of erstwhile championship leader Tom Sharp who annexed a brace of fourth place finishes today.
“It’s been a great day for our championship”, said Breeze, “The main rival at the minute is Tom Sharp and he’s finished fourth twice today so we’ve increased the cushion again. We pretty much tripled our lead in the space of two races so it’s really good. In the past we’ve had a bit of a home advantage here but that slate has been wiped clean with the new track. Even so, we’ve still been really quick.”
In qualifying, local driver Breeze required just three flying laps to secure pole position for the first encounter with a time of 1m56.894 seconds (91.43mph) placing him 0.2 seconds ahead of Freke with Morgan third fastest, Sharp fourth and the returning Phil Broad a superb fifth quickest on his first time out in one of the new 2011 Ginetta G55s.
Launching very well from the line at the beginning of round 15, Breeze led on the run to Riches but Freke’s getaway wasn’t tardy either and he attempted to go around the outside through the first corner and along the short run to the new hairpin.
Breeze emerged ahead and a delay for Freke enabled Morgan to go through as the cars headed into the infield section. Sharp followed Freke in fourth ahead of George Murrells and Broad but a little further behind, Colin White’s involvement came to an end at the Esses after picking up debris that caused an oil leak.
Broad showed his time away from Ginetta certainly didn’t attract any race-rustiness as he served up a tremendous pass around the outside of Murrells at Riches to take fifth place on lap two. Back at the front, meanwhile, Breeze set about extending his lead as Morgan kept Freke at bay and by the fifth lap his cushion was 2.5 seconds.
At the hairpin though, Freke’s pressure on Morgan told as he moved ahead into second before setting off after the leader. But Breeze had enough in hand and took the win 1.5 seconds clear, although Freke did post the fastest lap and establish the new lap record. Morgan took third ahead of Sharp, Broad and Lee Pattison – the latter making his G55 debut having raced a G50 previously
In the G50 Class, Jake Hill – racing with category debutant Tollbar this weekend after switching from former squad Optimum Motorsport – overcame early leader, and pole-sitter, Jody Fannin to chalk up his second success of the season. Aaron Williamson rounded-out the podium in third while points leader Tom Ingram could only manage a distant eighth after continual clutch problems.
Hill said: “It’s fantastic to be back at home with Tollbar, that’s what being with this team is like for me, and to qualify second and win the first race I couldn’t have asked for much more. The boys did a great job with the car, it’s been a mega.”
Rocket-ship start earns Freke fourth win of 2011In round 16, Freke made a sensational getaway from second on the grid to lead into Riches and from that point on he never looked back – despite being under consistent pressure from Breeze for the first half of the race.
Pole-sitter Breeze had a problem with a dragging clutch and so wasn’t able to launch as well as he wanted but he managed to hold-off Morgan through the first corner by defending the inside line and within three turns he had gobbled up Freke’s early advantage.
The gap between the top two remained around 0.5 seconds for the first six laps but Freke then started to edge away and also fractionally bettered his earlier lap record for Snetterton 300 with a time of 1m57.563 seconds (90.91mph).
“I didn’t plan to make that good a start, it just sort of happened”, said Freke, “I noticed Carl wasn’t so good off the line so I took full advantage and then controlled the race from the front. It’s always nice leading, I could see where I was quicker than Carl and where he was quicker than me and I was never really that vulnerable. Mid-race I got a bit of a gap and then looked after the tyres.”
As in the opening race, Morgan finished in third place ahead of Sharp while a richly deserved fifth went to Pattison in his JHR Developments machine. Aside from winner Freke, the star of the show was undoubtedly Colin White who sliced his way through superbly from stone last on the grid into the top six.
Andrew Richardson, taking part in only his fourth event of the year due to budget difficulties, sealed his third G50 Class win of the season with a terrific seventh place overall. Fannin finished in second place, with three G55s between those two, while Richardson’s sister Louise – who is also operating on an extremely tight budget – was third.
“We were hoping for better in the first race but Colin (White) got some debris off the track and that went through his grill and I was right behind him so I had no reaction time at all to be able to avoid the oil that came on the track”, explained Andrew, “This time, it all worked fine for us and we were really quick too, faster than in qualifying, so I’m very happy.”
Fergus Walkinshaw made a welcome return to competitive action today on his debut in a Ginetta G55, his efforts to be on the grid all the more impressive as he built the car himself – with some assistance from the Ginetta Cars crew at the manufacturer’s Leeds factory – in recent weeks.
Despite only completing the fine tuning during the early hours of Friday morning before testing, the privateer entry put a disappointing race one retirement behind him to record an excellent eighth place finish in the G55 class in race two.
Round 17 of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup will take place at approximately 13.45, Sunday, 7th August, and will be screened live on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channel ITV4 and in High Definition on ITV4 HD. Live streaming will be carried online at itv.com/touringcars
Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup Championship Positions (after Rd16):1st Carl Breeze, 427pts; 2nd Tom Sharp, 392pts; 3rd Adam Morgan, 383pts; 4th Nathan Freke, 329pts; 5th George Murrells, 297pts; 6th Colin White, 262pts
Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup ‘G50 Class’ Championship Positions (after Rd16):1st Tom Ingram, 399pts; 2nd Jody Fannin, 384pts; 3rd Aaron Williamson, 322pts; 4th Jake Hill, 210pts; 5th Andrew Richardson, 225pts; 6th Robert Gaffney, 186pts
