Carl Breeze and Mark Davies took a win apiece for Total Control Racing during the sixth event of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup season at Snetterton 300 Circuit over the weekend, 3rd/4th August, to increase the Wednesbury squads 2013 tally to seven victories.
Snetterton local Breeze, who resides in Kings Lynn, began the race meeting with the runner-up spot in round 15 on Saturday afternoon before soaking up immense pressure in the first of Sundays encounters, round 16, to claim a very popular home success.
Davies, meanwhile, raced to his first win of the yearand his maiden victory since joining TCR at the beginning of the year - in round 17 with a dominant performance. Having stormed into the lead off the start, the Huddersfield racer had to do it all again when the action was red-flagged following a multi-car pile-up. At the second time of asking, he didnt put a wheel wrong to win by four seconds.
Its been a great weekend for us in the Ginettas, said team principal Lee Brookes, Wed have liked to have won all three races but it was fantastic to see Carl and Mark both up there on the top step of the podium. Carls always strong around Snetterton, he defended his lead perfectly in race two, and Mark was outstanding in race three. We knew he could do it, it was only a matter of time.
After qualifying third fastest for the weekends first encounter, Breeze profited from an error for former team-mate Jamie Orton on the green flag lap, the latter spinning off into the barriers when warming his tyres.
Giving the TCR man a clear run to second place off the start, he remained there for the duration while sixth placed qualifier Davies, who assumed fifth place after Ortons excursion, had to settle for a top five despite piling on the pressure to the two cars ahead for the bulk of the encounter.
With the race one result setting the grid for round 16, Breeze lined-up in second place and made a superb start to surge into the lead on the run to Riches. Despite having to soak up immense pressure throughout the 12 lap duration, Breeze was faultless and claimed his sixth victory of 2013. He also posted the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1m57.695 seconds (90.81mph).
Team-mate Davies climbed from fifth into fourth at the start and set fastest lap pace at mid-distance as he focused on challenging for a podium finish. Trying everything he could to usurp Pepe Massot into the closing stages, as the top four closed up, in the end he had to settle for fourth position.
For the reverse grid third race, round 17, Davies was second with Breeze in fifth and at the start the former made a sensational getaway from the line to grab the lead with TCR team-mate Breeze also lighting up the rear tyres brilliantly to slice through into the top three. All of their hard work was undone, though, when the red flags were shown after a collision lower down the order.
At the re-start, Davies was again able to surge into the lead and he controlled the action from the front perfectly to win by 3.8 seconds, also setting the fastest lap of 1m58.105 seconds (90.49mph) and moving up into third in the points table. Breeze held fourth off the start and remained there to the finish, a mere 0.6 seconds away from claiming another podium. He stays second in the points.
Front-running pace for Smith unrewarded in Clio Cup Total Control Racings sole entry into the Renault UK Clio Cup, Rob Smith, delivered two strong race performances in rounds 11 and 12 of the season at Snetterton and was incredibly unlucky not to come away with a pair of top 10 finishes at the very least.
Running in the top five during the first half of Saturdays all-important qualifying session, the second year Clio Cup racer looked well on course for a career-best starting slot but on his second set of tyres he wasnt able to make the progress expected and had to settle for 13th quickest in the end.
Confident of making strong gains in race conditions, the Telford driver immediately did so by moving into 11th position and by lap four he was into the top 10. Challenging for ninth, while also defending his position from the experienced Stefan Hodgetts, Smiths race took a turn for the worse on the sixth tour when Hodgetts suffered steering failure and hit the TCR car. He recovered in 17th place.
Making an exceptional start to round 12 on Sunday, Smith motored away strongly from 12th on the grid and sliced his way through the order into seventh. Bidding to secure his second top six result of the season, an attempt to wrest sixth away around the outside at the first corner on lap two only resulted in Smith running wide and dropping to 12th place where he stayed to the finish.
Rob made some really good progress this weekend, he definitely deserved a couple of top 10 results and he was on for sixth in the second racehe was very unlucky there, commented TCR boss Brookes, It was a positive weekend though, he was strong in the first part of qualifying and raced well so were confident he can repeat the same performance at Rockingham next month.
Rounds 18, 19 and 20 of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup will take place on 24th/25th August at Knockhill Circuit in Scotland. The Renault UK Clio Cup, meanwhile, will resume its 2013 campaign on 14th/15th September at Rockingham in Northamptonshire.
Before either of those events, TCR will be back in action in the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge next weekend, 10th/11th August, at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit in Kent.
Provisional 2013 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup Driver Standings (after Rd17):2nd Carl Breeze, 414pts; 3rd Mark Davies, 332pts
Provisional 2013 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup Team Standings (after Rd17):3rd Total Control Racing, 793pts
Provisional 2013 Renault UK Clio Cup Driver Standings (after Rd12):14th Rob Smith, 91pts
