George Gamble made it a double triumph at Donington Park in the final meeting of the 2013 Protyre Ginetta GT5 Challenge, but it was Oli Basey-Fisher who survived a chaotic encounter to claim the overall title.
Luke Davenport beat pole-sitter Brad Bailey – still in with a chance of securing the crown himself – into the first corner with a demon getaway from the front row, upon which mayhem ensued down the pack in the opening two laps.
Bailey’s title hopes disappeared in a cloud of smoke when he lost control of his G40 heading down Craner Curves for the first time, somehow not being collected by the oncoming train of Ginettas heading towards him.
The first lap carnage was not done yet as Will Moore rotated at Coppice and took the G20 of Nick Zapolski with him as an innocent victim, the safety car deployed to clear the gravel trap of Zapolski’s stricken car.
The restart created more madness as fluid on the circuit at Craner Curves sent cars scattering, Davenport one of many cars that took to the scenery, a red flag stoppage being the end result and David Pattison being collected by Ben Hyland the most serious collision to occur.
Jake Giddings had restarted best of all by snatching the lead at Redgate from Davenport, but the resumption of the race following the red flag reversed the places for phase two of the finale.
The second attempt to complete the race produced the tense finale for the championship that was expected, Davenport losing his lead on the opening tour to race one winner Gamble, the Total Control Racing driver pulling clear of his rivals to a victory of 3.2s to double his win tally of the day in Leicestershire.
Basey-Fisher made his move for fourth meanwhile on Tor McIlroy, the Optimum Motorsport car taking a race-ending trip into the gravel at Coppice corner, setting up a close fight for third between Giddings, Basey-Fisher and Burns which would decide the title.
Basey-Fisher braved a move on Giddings during the penultimate lap, the pair entering Melbourne hairpin three-abreast with the Academy Motorsport man coming out ahead. Burns needed to fight back, but spun heading out of the final corner to secure Basey-Fisher the title by 10 points over Burns by finishing third behind Gamble and Davenport.
Fourth went to Giddings ahead of Burns, Callum Pointon sixth with the top 10 rounded out by the quartet of Stephane Romecki, Gary Duckman, Ben Constanduros and Ashley White who ended his debut weekend with a top 10.
The G20 class was again fittingly won by Stuart Pearson, moving him onto 17 wins from 20 races. Mark De Spong was second in class, Jonny Greenwood rounding out the final G20 podium.
