Morgan snatches title in gripping Ginetta GT Supercup finale

A double win for Tom Sharp was overshadowed by the fight for the 2011 Ginetta GT Supercup title at Silverstone, with Adam Morgan grabbing the title and a BTCC prize drive after a great battle with Carl Breeze.

The two championship rivals locked out the front row with pole going to Morgan, but he dropped to third after a poor start in the first race as Breeze shot off into the lead with Freke taking second with a move around the outside.

Freke immediately attacked Breeze for the lead and made a lunge at Brooklands that ended in contact between the pair, Freke spinning down the order while Total Control Racing’s Breeze survived but was delayed and dropped behind Morgan and Sharp.

The new leader having entered the corner fourth was now Sharp, as Morgan was also forced to slow in avoidance of the incident ahead of him.

In the G50 class, Mark Johnston led in eighth, while a good opening lap for Andrew Richardson saw him take second ahead of Jake Hill and newcomer Mark Davies, however a couple of laps later contact at Brooklands saw Richardson spin, dropping him to the back.

In the G50 class, Mark Johnston took the early lead while behind there was chaos as Andrew Richardson spun after contact with Jake Hill for second, while his sister Louise Richardson was out on lap one after a heavy accident with Aaron Williamson that wrecked both their races and cars.

The race was eventually halted after a safety car period a few laps later to remove the damages cars, and the damage to Louise’s G50 meant she was stuck in the car for a lengthy period.

After the recovery crews finished their clean-up, Sharp finally restarted the race in the lead from pole position in what would be a 15-minute race, with Morgan slotting into second ahead of the fast-starting George Murrells who leapfrogged Breeze at the start, while Freke’s recovery from seventh saw him challenging for Colin White’s fifth place, eventually making his way past the CWS driver on lap five.

Sharp’s lead was all-but safe as Morgan ramped up the pressure on the IDL driver, but Sharp did enough to hang on to an eighth victory of the season, while Morgan took second to move to within four points of championship leader Breeze who fought his way past Murrells for third, ahead of Freke fifth after a late puncture hit the unlucky David McDonald.

Tollbar Racing’s Hill won the G50 class after dominating from the restart to beat Johnston, who then lost second on the last corner of the race to Andrew Richardson, with Mark Davies and Rob Gaffney fourth and fifth.

The second encounter was a nail-biting final round of the season, with Sharp leading the field away from pole position ahead of Freke – who spun embarrassingly on the warm-up lap – as the Century Motorsport driver jumped Morgan at the start, Breeze also crucially following him into third past his main rival.

The race was quickly under safety car however as a stall for G50 newcomer Jamie Orton caused Jody Fannin to take avoiding action that saw him collect the pit wall instead, ending the Pyro drvier’s impressive year on a low note.

On the restart the front four began to edge out a gap, with all the attention on the battle for the title and third place in the race, and Morgan began putting Breeze under massive pressure.

The Ciceley Racing man then made his move heading into Copse to take over third from Breeze, who then fought back dramatically by nudging Morgan aside at Luffield.

Morgan fought back though and took advantage of Breeze being held up by Freke in second to cut back inside Breeze to snatch third at Luffield on lap 11, where he could now sniff the championship if he could pass Freke and take fastest lap of the race.

On lap 15 he set the fastest lap for the extra points, and looking the fastest man out on track he turned his attentions to Freke’s position, snatching the position on lap 18 to suddenly move into the position of title favourite.

Second wasn’t enough for Morgan however – he wanted to win. He began closing on leader Sharp just like in race one, but could not get close enough as Sharp took another win by less than a second to end his year on a high.

Breeze’s championship hopes were fading as he could not get close enough to Freke to retake the title advantage, and as the pair took the flag unchanged, Morgan’s unbelievable statistic of 20 podium finishes meant he snatched the championship from the former BTCC driver.

Morgan celebrated with his team afterwards, saying: “It was good, we knew we had to finish ahead of Carl in that one, if anything two places ahead of him and fastest lap.

“The team gave me an absolutely awesome car, it was spot on the whole race so I got my head down and drove as fast as I could.”

The G50 class was won in race two by Hill once again ahead of Andrew Richardson, while Davies inherited third after a penalty for Johnston. Williamson took fourth in class which was enough to secure the FML driver second in the G50 points behind eventual champion Tom Ingram, who despite generously appearing in the paddock, took the sensible option of choosing not the race for the sake of losing any funds in an accident.

The quite enviable championship prize that Morgan will also recieve is a paid drive in next season’s British Touring Car Championship, after beating Breeze by a mere five points in the end to cap off a brilliant debut season for the Ginetta GT Supercup.

Final Ginetta GT supercup G55 standings:

1: Adam Morgan, 694 – Champion

2: Carl Breeze, 689

3: Tom Sharp, 683

4: Nathan Freke, 638

5: Colin White, 443

Final Ginetta G50 standings:

1: Tom Ingram, 664 – Champion

2: Aaron Williamson, 605

3: Jody Fannin, 590

4: Jake Hill, 585

5: Andrew Richardson, 452

Advertisement

---