Breeze and Morgan take over at the Sharp end

Tom Sharp’s 100 per cent record of wins in Ginetta GT Supercup was finally broken last weekend at Thruxton, as Carl Breeze took two wins in three frenetic races to get his championship campaign back on track.

The ex-BTCC racer was the man on form all weekend as he ended qualifying over half a second ahead of his rivals at the top of the timesheets, before romping to victory in the weekend’s opening race on the Saturday afternoon.

The action of the first race was then down to the battle for second between the rest of his main series rivals which was eventually won by Cicely Racing’s Adam Morgan, finishing over five seconds behind Breeze as they took the flag.

Tyres played their role in providing a back-and-forth changing of pace in the second race the following day. The race was again lead away off the line by Breeze as the lights went out from Morgan, Nathan Freke and Sharp, running in the same fourth place he had finished race one.

The championship leader however then began to slip down the order due to severe tyre wear and was soon swamped by the pack and fell to a dissapointing eighth place finish.

Third-placed man Freke began to take over control of the race as he dived up the inside of Morgan for second place at Goodwood, before the pair then quickly caught up to leader Breeze who had begun struggling for grip on worn rubber.

Breeze then surrended the lead to Freke on lap 13 at Noble, and then was quickly shuffled back to third by Morgan after Breeze tried to block him out at the final chicane.

As the race one winner dropped back out of contention on his way to finishing second, race leader Freke also began to drop off the pace as he was reeled in quickly by Morgan, who then made his move late in the race to take the lead and go on to win his first race of the season. Freke’s problems were worse than expected however as he was forced to pull into retirement with electrical problems, continuing his terrible run of luck to start the season.

The final race of the weekend was truncated early by a stoppage caused by a dramatic accident when pole sitter Alistair James stalled as the ligths went out and was collected heavily by Aaron Williamson and Louise Richardson.

Breeze was the man to benefit from the accident as he stormed into the lead at the second start, while a train of G55s was formed behind second place man Colin White, whose wide line exiting the chicane cost him throughout the race as Morgan was the first to relagate the CWS driver when he got a run up the inside and made his move for second stick into the first corner.

Sharp and Freke – who were both sent to the back for using a set of brand new set of tyres – began making their way through the field, both dispatching the G50 field before Freke pulled into the pits to retire with mechanical problems yet again.

Sharp then relentlessly charged through from seventh place, passing Jochaim Ritter through Goodwood, then George Murrells at the Complex before taking advantage of another wide line at the chicane from White to move into third place.

Breeze’s race was anything but easy however as he came under intense pressure for the lead by Morgan with six laps to go, sustaining the pressure with some stern defensive driving to hang on just for his second win of the weekend.

The G50 class meanwhile was thouroughly dominated by reigning Junior series champion Tom Ingram. In race one he held off the attentions of Williamson during the pair’s battle with G55 runner White in the second half of the race en route to fifth overall, before going on to dominate the class in the final two encounters for a convincing hat-trick despite sponsorship difficulties.

The results mean that Sharp and Ingram still hold a comfortable lead in both classes.

Ginetta GT supercup (G55) standings after round three:

1: Tom Sharp, 280

2: Carl Breeze, 232

3: Adam Morgan, 213

4: George Murrells, 198

5: Colin White, 162

Ginetta G50 standings after round three:

1: Tom Ingram, 265

2: Jody Fannin, 205

3: Robert Gaffney, 186

4: Jake Hill, 173

5: Aaron Williamson, 144

6: Louise Richardson, 136

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