David Pittard made it six different winners in the first seven races of the 2014 Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup with a superb maiden victory in the opening race at Thruxton.
Championship leader Charlie Robertson started the eleven lap encounter from pole position, however a clutch problem for the 2012 Ginetta Junior champion saw him get swamped off the line.
Fellow front-row starter Pittard leapt off the line into the lead, while a mega getaway for Carl Breeze saw him storm through from fifth to second. Robertson briefly held third, but he was shuffled back to fifth behind Tom Oliphant and Andrew Watson at the complex.
Pittard quickly broke away to develop a near two second lead at the front, running comfortably in front throughout the main portion of the race. Breeze ate away at his advantage late on, but couldn’t get close enough to challenge, with Pittard taking the win by 0.727 seconds.
“It feels fantastic,” an elated Pittard told TCF. “I can’t believe it really. Danny [Buxton] gave me a great pep talk before the race, and I just made sure I nailed my start. I never looked back from there, I monitored my pit board, maintained the gap and looked after my tyres. I’m delighted to get a win this early in the season, and to get it on pace, not relying on the reverse grid.”
“We’ve been struggling with the car this season, so second is a great result,” added Breeze. “I’m known as a rocket man off the start and that was probably one of my best. I settled into a rhythm in the race, and towards the end we started to close the gap bit by bit, and I was just hoping there’d be a few more laps and we could have got him.”
Oliphant went on to hold third place for the duration of the race, despite the best efforts of Watson. The Irishman was not quite able to make a challenge for the place though, giving Oliphant his third podium of the season.
Behind Watson was a frustrated poleman Robertson in fifth, while taking a second top six finish of the year was Will Burns ahead of Pepe Massot.
At the tail end of the top ten, a fantastic battle emerged for eighth between Luke Davenport, Harry Woodhead and Jamie Orton – Woodhead having passed Orton around the outside at the chicane on lap three.
Davenport provided stern resistance for a number of laps, with one challenge from Woodhead at the chicane on lap six resulting in the reigning Ginetta Junior champion running wide and falling behind Orton.
The United Autosports driver wasn’t able to keep eighth to the finish though, falling behind Orton and Woodhead in the final few laps to finish tenth. Fergus Walkinshaw, Dan Norris-Jones and Reece Somerfield followed, whilst series debutant Michael Munemann completed the finishers a lap down in fourteenth after late drama.
Full race results can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/toca/2014/141803g50.pdf