Tom Ingram looks set to become the 2013 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup champion during the penultimate meeting of the season at Silverstone this weekend.
The 20 year old has been in mesmerising form this season, with nine wins, including two a fortnight ago at Rockingham, giving him a 172 point lead at the top of the standings with five races remaining. With 185 points left to compete for, a top six finish in one of the Silverstone races will confirm him as champion.
This will complete a remarkable campaign for the KX Akademy member, who is currently on a twenty race podium streak, and in the process complete a unique Ginetta championship hat-trick, added to his Juniors success in 2010 and G50 triumph a year later.
“Whilst Rockingham was a perfect weekend, the focus is now on Silverstone as I’ve got to try and wrap this title up. I’m still gunning for wins, fastest laps and podiums though,” he commented.
The only driver who can stop Ingram now is the experienced Ginetta ace Carl Breeze. Three retirements to date have scuppered the Total Control Racing driver’s challenge, however the reigning champion is sure not to give up without a fight.
To overturn the deficit though, Breeze will need to quickly add to his six race wins so far, whilst seeing the points leader hit plenty of trouble.
Other than Ingram, the other driver in-form at the moment is Matt Nicoll-Jones. The Academy Motorsport boss scored a pair of wins at Knockhill five weeks ago and followed them up with a tenth podium finish of the campaign at Rockingham, with more wins his aim at Silverstone.
Impressing alongside Nicoll-Jones at Rockingham was recently-crowned 2013 G50 champion Sean Huyton. Fresh from dominating the G50 class with fourteen wins in seventeen races, Huyton stepped up to a G55 for the first time and secured a hard-fought podium finish in the final race. Expect him to be in podium contention once again this weekend.
Joining Nicoll-Jones and Huyton in getting podium finishes at Rockingham were Mark Davies and Rob Boston, and both will be targeting more at Silverstone. They won’t come without a fight though, with Andrew Watson, Pepe Massot, Jamie Orton, Carl Boardley, Fergus Walkinshaw and Reece Somerfield all in the podium mix in the ultra-competitive Supercup.
In the G50 class, Ginetta Challenge front-runner Will Burns was the only entrant at Rockingham, but he will be joined this weekend by three more entrants. 2012 G50 runner-up Rob Gaffney makes a return to the series, while newly-crowned Norweigan GT Champion Andre Falkenhaug and Steffen Andre Feet make a guest appearance with Ginetta Team Norway.
The weekend’s qualifying session takes place on Saturday (28th) at 11:45, with the opening race following at 16:55. The weekend’s second race follows at 12:35 on Sunday (29th).
Image Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
