A trio of new Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup race-winners emerged from the second meeting of the 2017 season at Donington Park last weekend, with Callum Pointon, debutant Tom Roche and Ben Green sharing the spoils.
Their successes mean five different drivers have won in the opening six races of the Supercup season, whilst a troubled weekend for early championship leader George Gamble means Pointon now holds the points advantage.
Gamble had got the weekend off to a perfect start in qualifying, as he edged out Green to pole position by just seven hundredths of a second, his second consecutive pole position in his maiden Supercup campaign.
The poleman was slip to third on the opening lap of race one however, before it went from bad to worse later in the race as contact with Green led to a retirement with steering damage, while Green recovered to eighth.
Carl Boardley would go on to lead every lap of the opening encounter, however a last lap, five second track limits penalty would drop him to fifth, promoting Pointon to the victory ahead of Rob Boston Racing duo Roche and Charlie Ladell.
It was an impressive debut for Roche; a late addition to the field in the Laser Tools G55 in place of Brands Hatch race-winner Jack Mitchell, who was instead competing in British GT at Oulton Park, however it would get better in race two.
Pointon led the opening portion of the race, however as Roche stormed around the outside into Redgate on lap eight, a spin for Pointon dropped him down the order, and ensured Roche had a clear run to a 3.3 second victory.
Green passed his Century Motorsport team-mate Declan Jones six laps from the end to take second, with Jones following him home, while Gamble climbed to fourth on the road, however a track limits penalty dropped him to seventh.
The reversed grid for race three put Reece Somerfield and Tom Hibbert on the front row for the weekend’s final encounter, which would eventually kick off at seven o’clock following delays to the timetable through the day.
In now tricky wet conditions, both Somerfield and Hibbert would lead the way over the first half of the race, however on lap eight Green made a decisive move on Hibbert into Redgate and held the lead to the finish.
Hibbert would fall back at the race continued, with Pointon coming through to seal his championship lead in second, whilst Jones completed a second double podium of the weekend for Century Motorsport in third.
That result means Jones lies joint-second in the standings with Gamble, who’s miserable weekend was concluded with a ninth place finish, whilst just one point further back are Green and Ladell, despite the latter finishing two laps down in eighteenth in race three.
Roche completed his impressive debut weekend with fourth in the final encounter, one place ahead of Boardley who bounced back well after having seen a challenge for a podium in race two derailed by a wild spin at the Old Hairpin.
In the AM class, Colin White used all his experience to secure a pair of class victories and take the points advantage with it, with erstwhile leader Jack Minshaw having endured a double retirement across the weekend.
The other race-winner was Minshaw’s Xentek Motorsport team-mate Jac Constable, while other podium finishers across the meeting were Alexis Taylor, Dan Kirby and Ian Robinson – former BTCC driver Andy Wilmot having taken a best of fourth on his debut.
Full race results from the weekend can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/file/?f=TOCA/2017/171503g50.pdf
