Charlie Robertson made it two wins in two races at Oulton Park with victory in a surreal Round 11 of the Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup, a race which saw drive-through penalties hamper a quartet of front-runners.
The key moment of the encounter was the race start. Robertson started from pole, and he just fended off a challenge from Carl Breeze into the first corner. Jamie Orton slotted into third meanwhile as David Pittard limped off the line into retirement with clutch problems.
Both Breeze and Orton were deemed to have marginally jumped the start though and were awarded drive-through penalties, as were Tom Oliphant and Pepe Massot after more obvious jumps at the back of the grid.
Breeze hounded Robertson for the lead in the first few laps, but was soon heading down the pitlane as he and Orton served their penalties. This promoted Andrew Watson to second, the Irishman having started sixth and gained a couple of places on the opening lap.
With Robertson 4.5 seconds up the road, there wasn’t to be a battle for the lead over the second half of the race. The HHC Motorsport racer cruised home for his fourth victory of the season, with Watson a comfortable second.
“Starts are something we’ve worked on between Thruxton and this weekend, and I think it’s really paid off,” Robertson told TCF. “We’ve come back stronger, and we’ve done really well this weekend. We’ve found a really good sweet spot with the car and to get the two wins is brilliant.”
The main battle in the closing stages came for third, with Luke Davenport holding the place under close scrutiny from Academy Motorsport pairing Sean Huyton and Will Burns.
On his home circuit, Huyton was desperate to snatch a podium finish in front of a large group of guests, but despite the reigning G50 champion’s best efforts, Davenport was able to fend him off for a third podium finish of the season.
Fourth was still comfortably Huyton’s best finish of the campaign so far, with team-mate Burns also carding his season’s best finish in fifth. Breeze was the first of the penalty-hampered drivers in sixth, hinting at what might have been with the fastest lap of the race.
Oliphant headed home Orton in seventh, having passed his Century Motorsport teammate on the penultimate lap, with Reece Somerfield and Dan Norris-Jones compleing the top ten. Massot completed the finishers, though he was a long way adrift after problems with his Ginetta.
Full race results can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/toca/2014/142303g50.pdf
Provisional 2014 Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup Standings (After Rd. 11 of 27):
1. Andrew Watson – Douglas Motorsport – 279pts
2. Charlie Robertson – HHC Motorsport – 275pts
3. David Pittard – SV Racing – 253pts
4. Tom Oliphant – Century Motorsport – 223pts
5. Carl Breeze – United Autosports – 215pts
6. Luke Davenport – United Autosports – 203pts
7. Pepe Massot – JHR Developments – 176pts
8. Jamie Orton – Century Motorsport – 153pts
