No-One Could Get Near Tom Sharp In Round Five - Photo Credit: Chris Gurton Photography
Tom Sharp took another lights to flag victory in Round Five of the 2012 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup at Donington Park to make it five consecutive wins at the start of the season.
There were a couple of early casualties in the race, with Josh Wakefield forced pull off on the green flag lap with a mechanical problem, this resulting in a second green flag lap, after which Jamie Orton pulled off into the pits with a driveshaft failure. When we finally got the start, the top four all got pretty equal getaways, meaning pole-man Sharp led Carl Breeze, Tom Ingram and Hunter Abbott into Redgate for the first time.
Sharp edged away early on, with the top three spread out. The main action came in the bottom half of the top six. Colin White made an early move on Abbott for fourth at McLeans, with Abbott regaining the spot later around the lap at the Fogarty Esses. The duo switched places again over the next two laps, before a few laps later another attempted move by White ended in contact with Abbott, spinning the latter round.
Abbott's race got worse later around the same lap as he looked to mount a recovery drive, a late lunge on the G50 of Louise Richardson ending in contact, spinning them both round. Abbott was able to continue, though his pace was hampered by damage, while Richardson was out in the gravel. The Richardson Racing team's race got worse on the next lap, with its G55 of Andrew Richardson forced to finally retire after suffering from front-end damage throughout the race.
At the front, Sharp held a comfortable lead, but saw this wiped out when the safety car appeared to remove Richardson's stricken car. The VCARS.co.uk-backed driver controlled the restart though and led the remaining handful of laps to cross the line for his fifth consecutive win in the series.
After the safety car, Breeze in second came under some immense pressure from Ingram, but the Tollbar Racing with WIRED driver held him off to take second, with JHR Developments Ingram taking his third podium of the season in third. White took fourth, while enjoying a strong run to fifth was Marcus Hoggarth, while seventh behind the G50 cup winner was Fergus Walkinshaw, and dead last, a lap down, was Abbott with his damaged Century Motorsport machine.
In the G50 Cup, Max Coates started from the class pole, however a great start for Mark Davies saw him take the early lead from Rob Gaffney, but the latter worked his way into the lead by the end of the opening lap.
Gaffney edged a small gap at the front, while behind Coates dispatched fellow Yorkshireman Davies on lap three to take second, before beginning to catch Meridian Motorsport's Gaffney in front. Coates progress was made harder by the G55 of Hoggarth, who battled with the top G50's throughout the race.
Coates eventually worked his way past four laps from the end and crossed the line for his second class win of the weekend. Gaffney eventually fell behind Davies too, while taking fourth in class was Reece Somerfield after the problems for Louise Richardson, with James Owen fifth and last in class.
