Double Ginetta Supercup wins and triple Knockhill podium for Carl Breeze
Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup front-runner Carl Breeze enjoyed a fantastically successful outing at Knockhill in Scotland over the weekend, 25th/26th August, with two wins from three races and a well deserved hat-trick of podium finishes for Total Control Racing.Setting the pace throughout the weekend, Breeze enjoyed easily his most successful event of the 2012 season. While his chief rivals encountered mixed fortunes, the Kings Lynn driver bagged over 100 points from the three races to move to within 52 points of series leader Tom Sharp.Team-mate Jamie Orton also delivered impressive pace during rounds 18, 19 and 20 of the season and, other than a quick moment off-track during the third encounter, the TCR driver was a genuine front-running threat. Taking a best result of sixth in Saturday afternoons race, Orton climbed from ninth to seventh in the championship standings to cap a great weekend for the Wednesbury team.Carl and Jamie have both been quick this weekend, Carls been on top form since testing on Friday and were delighted hes taken three podiums awayits made a big difference to the championship and its always great to be winning races, said TCR team principal Lee Brookes.Jamie wasnt far away at all in testing and qualifying, hes only been just a few tenths of a second off Carl and hes definitely getting closer and closer to the pace. Overall, its been a good weekend for us.Breeze started out on top during pre-event practice on Friday, 24th August, where he set the days pace with a best lap of 52.463 seconds (87.23mph) during the second of three dry sessions. Carrying that performance through to qualifying on Saturday morning, 25th August, he posted a lap of 52.104 seconds (87.83mph) to claim the round 18 pole position by a full 0.3 seconds.Making a great start to Saturday afternoons encounter, Breeze opened a lead of one second on the opening lap alone and built a substantial cushion of over four seconds by the end of lap 12. During the latter stages of the race his advantage did reduce but the TCR driver had everything in control to take his third victory of 2012.Orton, who like his experienced team-mate was highly competitive in testing, qualified an excellent fourth fastest for race onejust 0.2 seconds shy of joining Breeze on the front row of the gridbut was shuffled back to seventh on the opening lap. Running close behind Jake Hill for the bulk of the race, Orton moved up into sixth on lap 14 when Hunter Abbott crashed out.Fourth win of year for rapid Breeze With the starting order for round 19 determined by the finishing positions from race one, Breeze lined up on pole once again with Orton sixth on the grid. When the lights went out, Breeze launched away well and fended off the close attentions of Tom Ingram prior to the appearance of the Safety Car on lap eight. After the re-start, Breeze soaked up the pressure for win number four of the year.Orton, meanwhile, slipped to seventh on lap one and then got pushed back to eighth behind Colin White the next time around. The TCR racer hit back though on lap three, re-passing White to move into seventh again where he remained for the duration to finish just 1.3 seconds shy of the top six.Round 20 on Sunday got off to a worrying start when Ingram stalled on the grid and was collected at high-speed by the unsighted G50 class car of Mark Davies. Breeze had got away well from fourth to move into third, and Orton was just able to avoid Ingrams car ahead, but red flags correctly flew immediately as Ingram was attended to and debris cleared from the track.Due to the ensuing time delay, race officials moved the final Ginetta encounter to the end of the day following the last of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship rounds. When the action did recommence, Breeze moved into second behind former nemesis Nathan Freke and remained glued to his rivals tail for the entirety of the 26 lap racefinishing just 0.183 seconds shy of another win.Orton ran in fifth place until the eighth tour when White got past but an excursion for the TCR man a couple of laps later dropped him down to ninth before he pitted to have his car checked. Rejoining the race a lap down, with the Safety Car deployed, Orton continued and finished in 11th position.We decided even if we were quick enough in race three Carl shouldnt take any risks trying to pass [Nathan] Freke, said Brookes, The points for second place were important so we had to think about that. Its unfortunate Jamie went off track, he was going well until then, but we got him back out there to pick up some points which has helped him move up the championship.Rounds 21 and 22 of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup will take place over the weekend 22nd/23rd September at Rockingham in Northamptonshire where TCRs AirAsia Renault UK Clio Cup squad will also return to action for rounds 11 and 12 of its campaign. Before then, TCR will resume its title bid in the Total Quartz Ginetta GT5 Challenge two weeks from now on 8th/9th September at Silverstone.2012 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup Driver Standings (after Rd20):2nd Carl Breeze, 535pts; 7th Jamie Orton, 243pts