Tom Ingram (Left) Led The Way At Oulton Park - Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Tom Ingram has made it all to play for in the 2012 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup after taking a chunk out of Tom Sharp's championship lead with a stunning pair of victories in Rounds Ten and Eleven at Oulton Park.
For the first time this season, pole king Sharp was eclipsed in qualifying, with Ingram putting himself on pole for the opening race. Andrew Richardson was alongside him, with Sharp having to settle for third.
The opening encounter saw Ingram lead into Old Hall for the first time, while Richardson was the driver to lose out, getting forced out onto the grass at Old Hall, dropping him sixth behind Sharp, new Total Control Racing team-mates Carl Breeze and Jamie Orton, and Hunter Abbott.
Breeze was quickly past Sharp for second, with the front two breaking away early on. Behind, Abbott closed onto the rear of Orton and after a few laps of trying, he finally found his way through for fourth at Old Hall.
Behind, a battle emerged for sixth between Richardson, Josh Wakefield, newcomer Jake Hill and Colin White, with the latter being the main driver to lose out, spinning across the track at Hislops. Richardson maintained sixth until two laps from the end, when he was forced to retire.
At the front, Ingram held off Breeze to take the win, with Sharp completing the podium. Abbott took fourth ahead of Orton, while Hill claimed sixth ahead of Wakefield, Fergus Walkinshaw and Marcus Hoggarth.
In the G50's, Ginetta Junior graduate Declan Jones took pole position on his first outing, however a detour on his way to the grid ended his race before it had begun. This allowed class leader Mark Davies to take the lead from Rob Gaffney and Reece Somerfield.
A spin for Somerfield dropped him down the field, while Gaffney was given a drive through penalty, dropping him to third behind Irish returnee Connaire Finn. As Davies stormed to victory, Gaffney was able to close down Finn and take second, with Finn finishing third ahead of James Owen and Somerfield.
With the results from race one forming the grid for race two, Ingram started from pole once again and another good getaway saw the reigning G50 champion lead into the first corner from Breeze, who just held off a quick starting Sharp for second.
Ingram began to edge away as Breeze and Sharp battled behind. The duo's fighting allowed Abbott to get on their tail, with the Century Motorsport man finding his way past Sharp on lap seven.
Sharp tried to force a way back past, but the championship leader was unable to do so, having to settle for fourth, with Abbott taking his second podium of the season in third. Breeze held on to second, while nearly ten seconds up the road completing a perfect weekend was Ingram, taking his second win of the weekend and third of the season.
Hill took fifth for Tollbar Racing with WIRED on his G55 debut, while finishing sixth despite a spin was Orton, ahead of White and Wakefield, with Hoggarth ninth ahead of Walkinshaw, who lost ground after a drive through penalty. Unable to finish once again was Richardson after a spin at Cascades resulted in his G55 being stuck on the wet grass on the infield.
In the G50's Davies led away once again, with Finn holding second for the opening lap, until a switch around at the hairpin saw him drop behind Somerfield and Gaffney, before losing another spot to a hard-charging Jones.
Davies stormed away to take his second win of the weekend and fifth of the season to extend his championship lead. Gaffney continued his great run with his ninth podium in eleven races in second, with Jones also working his way past Somerfield to secure his maiden G50 podium on his debut weekend.
A delighted Ingram told TheCheckeredFlag.co.uk: “It's been a really, really good weekend for us. We had SkyCig come on board for this round and it's a perfect way to introduce them to the winning circle. We're over the moon and to finally start taking some points from Sharp is great, as bringing his championship lead down is the goal at the moment. We've got a long way to go, but there's still a lot of points on offer so we'll see what we can do.
“I've always loved Oulton and always done well here, so I came in hoping for some good results, but two wins was not on the cards. To be able to do it and get the confidence up is just what we needed ahead of Croft.
“We had a bit of a nightmare at Croft last year, I don't think it could have gone much worse there, so fingers crossed for a better weekend this year!”
Provisional 2012 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup Championship Standings (After Rd. 11):
G55
1 T.Sharp 358
2 T.Ingram 267
3 C.Breeze 253
4 H.Abbott 200
5 J.Wakefield 168
6 C.White 162
7 M.Hoggarth 145
8 F.Walkinshaw 141
G50
1 M.Davies 353
2 R.Gaffney 299
3 M.Coates 236
4 J.Owen 192
5 L.Richardson 188
6 R.Somerfield 126
