Nathan Freke took victory in Round Twelve of the 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup, the former Ginetta G50 Cup Champion leading from lights to flags for his second win of the season in tricky conditions at Yorkshire circuit Croft.
Freke led away at the start, with fellow front-row starter Adam Morgan following close behind. The duo broke away quickly at the front, leaving behind a close battle for third place. Holding the place early on was Tim Harvey, making his debut in the championship, but he lost out on the opening lap to JHR Development's Stefan Hodgetts.
Harvey fought back on lap three, but as they headed towards Clervaux, Hodgetts squeezed him towards the pit wall. This dropped the former BTCC champion behind Carl Breeze, but he fought back past his Total Control Racing team-mate at Tower. He got back onto Hodgetts tail, but as the duo ran close together through the Chicane on lap four, Harvey clipped the tryres, breaking his steering arm and ending his race.
This promoted Breeze to fourth, with championship leader Tom Sharp up to fifth. The IDL driver was forced to start eleventh on the grid, despite setting the third fastest time, after a tyre mix up in qualifying meant he fitted a non-permitted set of tyres, meaning times on those tyres were disallowed. Sharp's race then went bad when he received a black flag for being deemed to have been out of position at the start, forcing him to pit for a drive through.
This promoted Colin White to fifth, with him and Breeze leading the assault on Hodgetts. Their job was made simple though when Hodgetts began dropping back through the field over a few laps, before eventually retiring on the penultimate lap. Breeze also lost time during Hodgett's demise, allowing White into third, with Breeze fourth ahead of the leading G50 Cup runner Tom Ingram.
Ahead, Century Motorsport's Freke had pulled clear and won by 3.1 seconds, with Ciceley Racing's Morgan second for his eighth podium of the season. White held on for third, with Breeze fourth. Ingram took his seventh G50 win of the season in fifth, ahead of the G55's of George Murrells and Alistair James. Eighth overall and second in the G50's was Jake Hill, just beating class rival Aaron Williamson. The G50's of Jody Fannin, Andrew Richardson and Lee Pattison were next up, with Sharp completing the finishers.
Freke commented: “We knew we had good pace, I pushed hard early on but because this circuit is so hard on tyres I then chipped it back and made sure I was absolutely in-line everywhere, no sideways and no wheel-spinning! The times stayed very consistent and I could see I had a good gap. The car was fantastic, I couldn't believe how far ahead we were – it was nice to be out front in control.”
Ingram said: “The car was fantastic today and it was a great race, Colin (White) and Carl (Breeze) were battling ahead and holding each other up and that gave me a chance to be right there with them at the end. It's hard when you're on the same pace as the G55s, you don't want to get involved but you don't want to be held up either so you have to be very careful.”
