Adam Morgan recorded his second race win of the 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup at Snetterton 300 Circuit this afternoon, Sunday, 7th August, to move into equal second place in the championship standings with early-season dominator Tom Sharp.
Profiting from a first corner tangle between ‘reverse grid’ pole-sitter Colin White and Lee Pattison, the Ciceley Racing driver soaked up immense pressure from Sharp in his IDL-run car but Morgan had enough in hand throughout.
The closest Sharp came to grabbing the lead was on the penultimate tour when he got terrific drive up Senna Straight and attempted to go around the outside of Morgan into Riches. Although Sharp momentarily edged ahead, as they rocketed towards the hairpin third placed Nathan Freke managed to get past for second place.
As Sharp and Freke battled, so Morgan was able to stretch away and he took the chequered flag on lap 12 just under four seconds clear of Freke’s theplayer.co.uk/Century Motorsport G55. Capping off his weekend perfectly, Morgan’s success added to a brace of rostrums from rounds 15 and 16 at the Norfolk track on Saturday, 6th August.
“It was really hard work from lap one, I had Tom (Sharp) in my mirrors the whole time and he put me under massive pressure the whole race”, explained Morgan, “I knew if I made one mistake he’d be through and towards the end of the race the tyres did start to go off.
“He came through to try a pass into Riches a couple of laps from the end, I got back past though and then he and Nathan (Freke) had a battle so I pulled away. I like the new track, apart from Coram, and two thirds and a first is a fantastic weekend for us – I’m over the moon.”
At the beginning of the sole live televised Ginetta GT Supercup encounter of the weekend White and Pattison both made good starts but a brave attempt to go around the outside at the first corner resulted in the JHR driver – in his first event at the wheel of a G55 rather than a G50 – spinning off as he and the pole-sitter made contact.
White’s CWS car had to retire on the spot but Pattison was able to eventually continue and mounted a sterling recovery to end the race a mere 0.7 seconds shy of the top six – confirmation of what may have been possible without the lap one tangle.
While Morgan and Sharp battled tooth and nail over the lead for the duration, Freke and points leader Carl Breeze paired off in a fight over the final rostrum placing but as the race wore on Freke was able to edge clear of his long-time rival before eventually getting ahead of Sharp for second.
Breeze, meanwhile, settled for another consistent points finish in fourth and, along with a win and second place from Saturday’s races, the Total Control Racing driver’s championship advantage is now 31 points. He did close on Sharp over the last two laps though, ending up just 0.8 seconds shy.
Second placed Freke commented: “It was a bit of a strange race really, we had the pace to hang on to the front guys but even though I got the fastest lap we didn’t have the consistent pace to be able to reel them in and challenge them.
“Tom (Sharp) made a bit of a fatal error going to the outside of Adam (Morgan) at the first corner – I did exactly that in the first race. So I just bumped up behind Adam and forced my way through past Tom. I’m really thankful for the second place, I’d almost settled for third but when opportunities like that come you have to take them.”
Sharp added: “Nathan was really quick, Adam was super consistent, so it was one of those races but I had a really usable car – it was doing what I wanted it to. I knew if I had a go for the lead and it didn’t come off I’d drop to third so I thought it was worth a chance. I made that decision, truthfully I’d rather win a few races and lose a few trying to win too.
“We’ve changed the car so much during the summer break, absolutely everything has been checked and the engine has been rebuilt. The set-up is completely different, and I’m learning my way around it a bit. We had a mega car in the first two sectors, it was the last sector where we lost time.”
Championship returnee Phil Broad, making his debut in a G55, took another excellent finish in fifth place ahead of George Murrells while in the G50 Cup class battle Andrew Richardson notched up his second victory of the weekend with another strong drive.
Team Pyro’s Jody Fannin led the early running in sixth place overall ahead of Richardson but on lap seven the latter shot up the inside at Riches to move ahead. Scrapping in among a number of more powerful G55s, the pair raced well with Richardson holding on to his lead and actually increasing it to over three seconds by the finish.
In terms of the G50 Cup points battle, long-time leader Tom Ingram is still on top but only now by a solitary point from Fannin following a shocker of a weekend. Clutch problems in Friday’s practice and race one were then compounded by an electrical issue in race two and contact and damaged suspension to his Plans Motorsport car in today’s encounter.
There is now a four week break in Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup action with rounds 18, 19 and 20 taking place at Knockhill Circuit in Scotland over the weekend 3rd/4th September.
Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup Championship Positions (after Rd17):1st Carl Breeze, 449pts; =2nd Tom Sharp & Adam Morgan, 418pts; 4th Nathan Freke, 360pts; 5th George Murrells, 315pts; 6th Colin White, 262pts
Provisional 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup ‘G50 Class’ Championship Positions (after Rd17):1st Tom Ingram, 415pts; 2nd Jody Fannin, 414pts; 3rd Aaron Williamson, 348pts; 4th Jake Hill, 333pts; 5th Andrew Richardson, 260pts; 6th Louise Richardson, 198pts
