Morgan And Breeze Share The Spoils
With IDL’s Tom Sharp unstoppable during the first six races of the season, this weekend’s action in Hampshire brought that to an abrupt end with tyre issues causing the points leader a major problem in all three races – although he did make a podium return in the last race of the day.
Breeze started round eight on pole position, as per the finishing order of Saturday afternoon’s race, and at the start he was challenged hard by Morgan but held on through the complex with Morgan slotting in ahead of Nathan Freke, Sharp and top G50 Class runner Ingram.
Breeze and Morgan ran closely together beyond mid-distance, the latter posting the fastest lap on the third tour with a time of 1m17.011 seconds, with Freke right there in third and Sharp a little way off the lead trio’s pace. Sharp really began to suffer with his tyres though as the race wore on and he dropped to an eventual finish of eighth overall – seventh in G55.
Freke got by Morgan for second at Goodwood with a great move on lap 12 and the former champion then looked for the lead at Noble a lap later which he grabbed. Instantly motoring away, the terrible misfortune which has blighted his season then struck again on the final lap with electrical issues.
Adam Morgan, secured his first success of 2011 during this morning’s eighth round with a fantastically judged drive which was as much about tyre conservation as it was about outright pace.
With other front-runners dropping down the order as the abrasive track surface took its toll, the Preston based 22-year-old looked after his tyres well and eventually came through to a take a dominant 8.5 second win.
Carl Breeze, who was one of those to suffer tyre problems, still managed to finish second and he then returned to the top step in the final race of the weekend after dealing with immense pressure from Morgan during the final laps.
“I had the first race under control really but by lap three or four I started to feel a vibration through the front-left and couldn’t get through the right-hand corners – it was a nightmare through the complex, through Church I was just running out onto the grass”, explained Breeze.
Adam Morgan commented: “On Saturday we struggled with tyres so today I protected the wear and that worked out well for us as some of the others hit problems. It’s a great feeling to get the first win of the year, every race I’ve finished this season I’ve been on the podium so I’m very happy to continue that here.”
In the G50 Cup class, Tom Ingram led at the front all weekend with two more wins to increase his points lead yet further – 60 clear of his closest rival. The Plans Motorsport driver impressed with seventh overall in each encounter today and his winning margin in round nine over former Ginetta Junior sparring partner Jake Hill was a massive 17 seconds.
Morgan came through for the deserved win, eight seconds clear of Breeze who was just 0.3 seconds ahead of Glastonbury racer Colin White at the flag.
George Murrells sealed fourth place ahead of Alistair James while Joachim Ritter, who had to start the race from the back of the grid when his driveshaft failed before the start of Saturday’s race, delivered a tremendous drive to finish sixth ahead of G50 winner Ingram.
The final race of the day started with disaster as Alistair James on pole position for the first time stalled on the grid, causing a collision with the G50’s of Williamson and Louise Richardson which also nearly collected BTCC Crazy blogger Jody Fannin who was lucky to escape with little more than a cracked windscreen.
After a short delay, the grid re-formed – minus James, Williamson and Richardson – and Murrells got away well from what was effectively pole position but through Allard, White took the lead. Breeze saw his opportunity though and on the inside into the complex he moved ahead with a terrific pass.
Sharp started at the back of the grid, after accepting a grid penalty for having to fit brand new tyres to his G55 even though each driver was handed an extra tyre due to the high levels of wear, and he came through well to take third to end the weekend on a positive note. Even so, he still had problems with wear as the race progressed and he took the flag 15 seconds adrift.
“I think we’ll call this a result”, Sharp said, “Taking the grid penalty and starting last was a pretty big gamble but we didn’t really have a choice. There was nothing left on the tyres from the previous race so we had to do it. We’re not sure why we’ve struggled so much, there’s a fundamental problem somewhere on the car – probably a failure of some sort we’re not aware of yet.”
Murrells took another strong fourth place finish to keep him near the forefront of the championship battle in the points standings with Ritter impressing again in fifth, well ahead of White and the lead G50 Cup car of Ingram.
Ingram said: “I’m still in shock – three wins, three poles, fastest in testing as well, this weekend has been absolutely fantastic for me. I’ve got a big points lead, which is great, and I absolutely love Oulton Park, which is next on the calendar, so I’m really looking forward to that.”
After a 5 week break, the Ginetta GT Supercup will be back alongside the BTCC at the picturesque Oulton Park circuit on the 4th and 5th of June.
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey
Craig Jones
